Partnership
by SunaT.U
Summary: Partners for life doesn't always mean romance. Everyone may think it does but it doesn't. Izuku forms a unique relationship with a girl who wants him to become a great hero almost as much as he does. Problem: she has a crush on Katsuki. Of all the people-! Maybe a do-over would be nice.
1. Chapter 1

**Partnership**

Perhaps things wouldn't have panned out the way they had had Izuku not happened to be walking back to the dorms by himself. If not for the fact that he had been motivated to get back to his room as quickly as possible. If not for the fact that Iida had still been explaining logarithms to Uraraka when the bell had rung, (a concept they wouldn't have to learn until they were third years, nonetheless). They weren't even that far behind him. It was no big deal really. It just so happened that a hero/villain fight had taken place during class and he wanted to analyze all of the footage of the incident for his research and add more to his collection of notes on the powers, abilities and strategies of the heroes he admired. It was his own form of studying. For future reference, of course. It all seemed like a grand coincidence that the circumstances allowed for this. Or perhaps the universe was simply determined to watch him get socked in the face.

Which is exactly what happened. So focused had he been on his own theories on how the fight might have played out based on his already acquired information about both the hero and the headline he had glanced at on his phone under his desk when he had gotten the silent notification that he looked up to notice his surrounding properly once he was nearly at the door to the first year dorms. That was followed by noticing two people waiting by the doors, followed by making eye contact with the one looking at him, followed by registering the sudden anger on the other's face, followed by fist to face.

Not only did Izuku hardly have time to react, but registering that the other person looked to be a girl, he made the split second decision to just take the punch. It hurt, of course, but it didn't even knock him back. This "conversation" was summarily finished with, "You must be a fucking idiot," said so that maybe only he could hear it.

Three things happened in reaction to this, none of which had anything to do with Izuku himself. Uraraka and Iida started to hurry to his side with distressed concern on their faces, the person next to the girl, a man, turned away as if embarrassed to be seen with the assailant, and said assailant slapped her hand onto Izuku's face and kept it there as if she were trying to cover up his face so she wouldn't have to look at it.

From an outsider's perspective, this looked bad. It looked entirely idiotic. A situation like this could only be understood by the universe itself. Izuku was meeting these people for the first time, unexpectedly at that. Yet even still, there was more to be understood by the insiders. The girl was clearly about Izuku's age, and the man, clearly much older. They both had laminated passes with the word _visitor_ hanging from their necks. Her hand left his face when the man patted the girl's head and made to leave without looking at the situation.

"I'm going back to the principal's office."

"Deku-kun!"

"Midoriya-kun!"

"Are you all right?!" Izuku's two closest friends asked nearly simultaneously as they got close. He started to look over at them and open his mouth to try and communicate what he was experiencing but both parties were cut off from each other.

As Iida reached out to touch Izuku's shoulder, the girl violently slapped his hand away. "Don't fuckin' touch him!" she shouted at both Iida and Uraraka.

There was a moment when no one did anything, too stuck in shock. That moment passed the second Uraraka's frown turned from concerned to pissed. She was going to say something. She had placed her hands on her hips in a defensive stance meant to communicate at a frequency only girls could interpret. However, the look on Izuku's face as his wrist was grabbed and he was dragged off between her and Iida made her stop. He was completely willing to go along with her. Not a trace of discomfort or anxiety was found in his eyes.

So they let him go. They were stupefied. Cemented and too heavy footed to go after him. Something about it gave the air of "let it be," and then interrogate Izuku later.

Izuku knew how this looked. Oh, he was fully aware. It's just that he was curious. The moment she stuck her hand to his face, the pain from the slight bruising her punch had given him was gone. Not just that though, the soreness of his muscles, even the usual pain in his joints was absent. He felt great. Actually, he felt fantastic. He wasn't bone tired like he was when Recovery Girl heals him, he was energized. He felt like he could train for days straight without having to worry about holding back for the sake of his body. Not that the still-working rational part of his brain would let him do that, even in this elated state.

The, perhaps, irrational part of his brain though was taking him on a journey following this walking problem a step ahead of him. He would have to do damage control later to attempt to clear up all the obviously-gonna-happen misunderstandings. Uraraka and Iida weren't the only ones they were in clear view of after all. The other students of his class had either stopped to watch or watched as they kept walking.

He was almost in a daze. That is, until the girl briefly stopped as they were passing Izuku's childhood friend. He didn't care what Katsuki thought about this, he just didn't particularly like being around him in general. But the thought that Katsuki might actually react to this was a bit intriguing. Watching her back, Izuku couldn't really tell, but it looked to him like they just stared at each other for a beat before both moving on.

He decided to start observing her closely. She led him back into the school and down a couple hallways before finding one that had cleared out. She let his wrist go and turned to him. Her face was meeker than before.

"I know that now that I've done all that you have no reason to listen to me, but I came here to meet with you specifically. It's for official business..." she glanced to the side, "of sorts. I deeply regret my actions. Please at least hear me out." She bowed to him.

Still awe-struck from strangeness, he didn't say anything to her. She eventually straightened herself. She looked very uncomfortable.

"Please?" she asked again.

He realized he had been frozen but made no outward show of this and instead purposefully made her wait before, "Okay."

She relaxed a little and pulled a key from her pocket. "This needs to be discussed in private, wanna go up to the roof?"

This actually forced Izuku to give her an expression. "Did you get permission to go up there?" he asked rightly.

"Nope."

He looked anxious because now he had to try and convince her to do the right thing. "Uh, then we should just find somewhere else to talk. Closed doors are more private than out in the open anyway," he tried his best not to look forceful.

She turned standoffish. "The principal won't punish me for something like this even without the permission. And he won't punish you for it as long as you're with me. He knows what's going on, my teacher and him agreed to let us meet however we see fit," she firmly held her position.

He thought about what she said as she was saying it and already had a response in reaction. "However you see fit. You know what's going on while I don't, allowing you to choose the terrain wouldn't make me a smart hero."

"Well I'm not a hero and I'm not here to fight you. I told you, it's business… of sorts."

There, she did it again. "Of sorts?" This was asked as a genuine question not an accusation. He can't control how she takes it though.

"Just don't worry so much about it all and come with me."

Again, you could say it was the irrational part of his brain at work, but he was still curious. He nodded to her and started to lead the way. She probably didn't know where the stairs that led up to the roof were anyway. Once on the roof, she made it a point to lock the door behind them. She sat down and leaned against the wall that covered the top of the stairs. She sighed loudly and was severely upset. Inwardly, if Izuku was reading her correctly.

"Ishise Honoka," she held up her hand for him to shake.

He took it, "Midoriya Izuku."

She promptly pulled him to the floor.

"I guess I'll sit," he let her have her way.

Now that they were eye level, she leaned towards him, "Ugh! That was so embarrassing! I had no idea he went to this school! Do you know him? I don't remember his surname, but, Katsuki?"

He could suddenly see what was coming. He felt like she was talking to him the way a girl would talk to another girl. Way to show him his place in her eyes. "Um, yeah," he thought better of calling him _Kacchan_ in front of her.

"Do you think that ruined my chances with him?"

There it is. If he hadn't seen it coming, his brain might have short circuited. "Uh… yeah, probably." He didn't really see how _anyone_ had a chance with Katsuki in the first place.

"Aww." She deflated a bit more. She took a moment and gathered herself. Looking him in the eye, "I'm sorry I hit you and probably embarrassed you. I'm studying to be a doctor, specifically for heroes. I had read your medical history, the parts that are not case sensitive, but when I saw the scars on your arms and hands, I was angry. Um, the reason I was reading up on your medical history… as well as that of others," she added, "is because I'm going to be a part of a group of physicians that specialize in the treatment of just one person. The person I chose first is you because of what I read about how you keep injuring yourself." She paused as if hesitating. "Before I can continue to explain my purposes, I'd like to ask you to promise not the tell anyone about what you hear. I'm not asking you to commit to do anything, it's still just listening at this point."

She waited. Izuku could tell she was earnest in this at least.

"I promise," he said simply.

"Okay," she gave him the smallest of smiles. "There are people whose quirks are top secret because of how easily they can be taken advantage of. And there are physicians who dedicate themselves to practicing only for a hero. I have a quirk that can be used to heal people, and since I can't let that be known, I decided to become a physician for a person I can trust. I read about how your quirk hurts you when you used it, but that you continue to use it because you want to become a hero who can save people. At that point, it was more than just your medical history," she looked away. "Your circumstances are exactly the type of thing secret personal physicians are for. Heroes that have a high probability of injuring themselves because of their own quirks, or the nature of their quirks means that they have to be injured to use them. It's a secret so that villains don't exploit this weakness in the hero. When matching up hero and doctor, we're supposed to look for someone who needs exactly what we can give them. I think I can help you. And I want to help you."

Izuku listened and thought. "If I agreed, what would that mean?"

She thought about her words. "We… would be… partners for life. Or retirement, whichever one comes first. I would use my quirk when needed, but I'm also actually studying medicine, and I would also try to help come up with ways to prevent injury. For now it would mean I would come see you after school and maybe on the weekends. We would just mostly need to spend time together so that I could train my quirk to suit your needs. You have your provisional license, right? I have the equivalent for doctors. I need field training like you do. I can't help you fight in the traditional way, but I'll do my best to make sure you can always continue to fight."

She sounded like she was proposing a lot more than that. Though Izuku didn't think she even realized what it sounded like. He knew she didn't mean it that way.

Izuku took it in and thought about it. He had already started coming up with ways to keep fighting on his own. It cost him his arms though. Recovery Girl's abilities are limited to what his body can take. He knows all this. He's thought about this a lot. He's also realized that no matter what her abilities are, he doesn't want a do-over. Do-overs will never make him progress the same way failure pure and sweet will. So to get a clear picture, he wanted to know her side.

"Ishise-san—"

"No, no, no. Please, just Honoka," she interrupted. She looked ready to take a punch.

"Honoka-san, what motivation do you have for this?"

She looked a bit dumbfounded before responding. "I… I could live a normal life, and have a normal job doing normal things. I would hide and people would just think I'm quirkless. But to never use my quirk, to never heal someone when I very well could, a part of me would be denied. I can't help people directly because that would put myself and others at risk. But if I could help one person in secret, one person who helps other people, I can still serve the purpose I feel is mine. While you become a hero, I'll become a guardian."

He thought he might understand her feelings. The way he feels compelled by instinct to save and protect even when he's weak and useless, it's that feeling.

"Honoka-san, I trust you," he stated firmly. "I'll agree to this if you can promise me you won't just give me do-overs. I still need to be able to learn from failure."

She looked confused. "My quirk doesn't exactly work like that, but either way, if you lose in battle, you lose. We're not talking about time travel, I'll just save your body so that you can use it to try again if need be."

Somehow, she'd convinced him he needs this. "Deal," he held out his hand.

She took it and this time she actually shook it. She smiled, "So I'll tell you how my quirk works if you tell me about Katsuki."

This would probably be easier with an adult.

* * *

 **A/N:** I'm not sure if this is all that enjoyable as is but I wrote this as a distraction for something else I'm writing and thought it was pretty useless if it just sat on my hard drive. I wanted to get creative with abilities without creating an entire world (this time), so voila!


	2. Chapter 2

Izuku avoided talking about Katsuki for several reasons. The way his relationship was with his once childhood friend was sort of influx, and therefore not a topic he wanted to come up. He knew questions of a different nature might turn up if Honoka picked up on his extensive knowledge about Katsuki. He used to be struggling between hating and admiring Katsuki. Hating him for the way he treated Izuku but admiring his instincts and prowess in a fight. Now he knew Katsuki was changing… slowly. Now he knew Katsuki knew his secret. And it was the fact that Katsuki hadn't told anyone about it that was making it hard for him to hate him. Honestly, he would rather Honoka have nothing to do with Katsuki. It would help keep this new part of his life and that old part of his life separate. Honoka didn't need to know any of this yet. They both needed to know more about each other first.

Which was clearly not what Honoka had on the agenda for today. He dodged and deflected attempt after attempt until they were stopped by a soft piano. Honoka pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at who was calling. The tune that played was light but a twinge sad.

"It's my master," she told him.

He gave her an odd look so she mouthed "my teacher" while she began to answer. "Hello," she focused on the phone. She seemed to already know what was coming as she nodded her head and kept opening her mouth like she wanted to say something but restrained herself from interrupting.

Eventually, "Yes master," and she hung up. She looked back to Izuku. "My master and your principal are waiting for me at the school gate."

"Okay," Izuku stood up ready to leave.

"Wait," she grabbed him by the arm.

He turned back to her so she let go.

"I feel like there are some things I have to do before I leave. You should know that right now, my master, your principal, Recovery Girl and one of your teachers are the only people who know why I came here. They'll be the only people to know the significance of your acceptance to my proposal. Please don't tell anyone else."

Izuku bit his lip. "Which teacher knows?"

"Um…" she tried to remember. "The principal was calling him by his given name. It was Toshi-something." She looked at him to see if that helped.

He seemed to relax a lit. Of course Izuku would remember All Might's real name, even if no one seemed to ever use it. He just needed to know that he didn't have to keep that a secret from his "master" of sorts. He was already keeping a huge secret from everyone else, so that he could deal with.

"Okay, what do you want me to tell everyone else?" After all, they needed to be consistent for this to work.

"About that," she started. "I was thinking that I could explain this to your friends for you. You know, the ones I yelled at. I've caused you a lot of trouble and I think it might be more believable if I say it first. I don't want to interfere with any of your relationships."

Well, it probably would be easier to convince Uraraka and Iida that he had just met this girl if she were the one to tell them. What else she'd say, he had no idea. He sent a quick text to Iida asking where he was and turned his phone off of silent so that he'd hear the reply.

"All right, come with me," he told Honoka as he unlocked the roof door. "Lock it behind us."

She did as she was told. The first time she did so without a complaint as far as Izuku could remember.

As she had no idea what he had texted or to whom, she had to ask, "And we're…?" she left it unfinished so he would get the idea.

A ping and a look down told him that both Iida and Uraraka were waiting for him in the shared space of the lobby of their dorms. He picked up his pace with a heading in mind.

"We have to hurry, don't we?"

Since Honoka didn't say anything else on the matter, he assumed she got his message.

"Um…" she quietly got his attention from behind. "What do you want me to call you?"

That gave his mind pause. Everyone but his mother, Katsuki and Uraraka called him Midoriya and it certainly wouldn't help matters if she called him anything else in front of his friends. However… she had already told him to call her Honoka. Which made sense to him as a sign of extending her full trust in light of their deal. She had let him call her that even before he had agreed to anything.

He reluctantly let his discomfort go. "You can call me Izuku."

She was silent a moment. "Izuku," she said aloud.

His discomfort immediately flooded back making him stop and turn to her.

"S-san," she chipped. It was plain to see that she didn't want to use honorifics.

"Come on," he started down another hallway. He was satisfied enough that they were now equals. He thought about why she might not care for honorifics the way any other healthy Japanese individual would. The only conclusion he could come up with was that she wanted them to be close immediately instead of with time. From a logistics stand point, things would be easier that way, but she didn't seem like the type of person that thought before she felt. If she was in a super secret program that he had never even heard rumors of, was it possible for her to have friends? Maybe not.

Outside and over the pathway through the trees led them to the doors of the class 1-A dorms. He led her in and once they met eyes with Uraraka who was leaning against the arm of a couch, Izuku stopped and let Honoka approach them herself. He was close enough to hear everything but enough space was left for it to be clear that Honoka was the one who wanted to talk to her and Iida, who turned around in a chair.

Both of Izuku's friends just stared at her, not having expected the girl to return with Izuku.

Honoka bowed to them. "I am so sorry for my attitude earlier. Both towards you and towards your friend. No matter how I felt, I was out of line." She raised her head and looked at them. "Since you had to witness that I feel that you have a right to an explanation. My name is Ishise Honoka and I'm studying as an apprentice to become a doctor. I came here to ask…" she paused. "Midoriya-san if I could do a case study on his condition in relation to his quirk. I had never met him before, I'd only read about his repeated injuries. Reading about them and seeing the results of them are a bit different I guess," she fidgeted with the hem of her top. "I'd never seen anyone with scars like that from something that wasn't an accident or inflicted upon them by someone else… Again, I'm sorry." She bowed again.

She seemed to want to get out of there as soon as possible with the pressure of Uraraka and Iida's gazes. She turned sharply and tried to speed-walk out of there. She had just barely made it past Izuku when she stopped hearing Uraraka's voice.

"Deku-kun, did you accept?"

Izuku gave her a wobbly smile not knowing what she was thinking. "Yeah," he told her the truth.

"Then it's okay," Iida replied.

Uraraka nodded. "Your face looks fine, so if you're okay with this, I'll accept it."

Iida stood up, "But if I ever think you're being stupid, I won't hold back on telling you."

Izuku smiled at them. They wanted to protect him and that made him happy. They were his friends. They trusted him to know what he can and can't handle, and they had his back when he felt he needed to go beyond his limits.

"I'm going to walk Ishise-san to the front gate," he told them.

They nodded. "We'll wait for you," Uraraka said as he walked Honoka out the door.

"'Kay," he waved.

Once they were clear of the building, Honoka looked up at Izuku. "Thanks for all this, Izuku-san." It seemed they had made a silent agreement to called each other by their given names only in private. Something he appreciated more than he'd ever tell her.

"Well," he thought about simply accepting her thanks at face value but it didn't feel right to him. "I actually think it's worth all the trouble you've given me. You've convinced me. I had no idea that this sort of thing could be available to me. I've been struggling for a long time now with how I can use more of my power without killing myself. In every desperate situation, I've found a way to make it work but it's cost me a lot that I'll never get back. I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to either overcoming this or really losing something irreplaceably important. I still intend to overcoming this on my own, but if you make it easier for me to get there, if there's less risk in the long run, I consider that a step in the right direction. So, thank you too."

Honoka looked away from him. He couldn't tell what she was feeling with her face turned away but he felt like he didn't need to know.

"Yes, there are some things that you need to do alone, but being a hero isn't one of them. Overcoming your weaknesses isn't one of them. I can't do any of those things on my own," she said softly.

He smiled. That wasn't exactly what he had meant, he knew these things, but her saying them to him so quietly made him happy. "Sure," he said.

The same man who had been waiting with Honoka at the dorm doors was waiting with the principal at the school gate. While they were still out of earshot, Honoka stopped them.

"This is far enough. I don't want to get in the way of any plans you may have over the weekend, so I'll see you on Monday after school if that's all right?"

Izuku got the sense that Honoka was trying to figure out where she stood in his mind. He didn't want to let it be that easy for her. He nodded.

"Okay," Honoka nodded back.

He watched her as she met up with her master. She stood by him like she was comfortable there as they talked to principal Nezu. They gave back their visitor passes and Honoka handed back the key to the roof. Principal Nezu didn't seem at all surprised and Izuku smiled at that.

He didn't have plans for the weekend other than to train. He would have more time to think about this and to think about Honoka. And now that he thought about, to explain Honoka to his other classmates who were bound to ask. The other thing that was weighing his mind was his own quirk. She was going to share hers with him even though it was top secret and could make her vulnerable. Should he share his? All Might would probably say no. Heck, the rational part of his mind said no. Perhaps he'd give it some time. After all, she did say partners for life. If that was indeed true, he felt like he would owe it to her long before then. For now, he didn't want to consult anyone about this. He wanted to wait and soak in the idea himself. Or avoid it knowing that unless he told her, she'd never even know he had been keeping that kind of secret from her.

* * *

A/N: I'm actually pretty glad that some people like this so far. Mostly because it's nothing like what I usually write. Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Officially, there were three major rumors floating around about what had happened on Friday by the class 1-A dorms. One: Izuku has an abusive girlfriend that has him completely whipped. Ugh, this was off to a bad start. That piece of speculation probably came from those who saw Honoka punch Izuku and then watched as Izuku was led away out of site with a skip in him step… so to speak. Two: Izuku's girlfriend came to break up with him, but after they talked it out they got back together. Well, at least that one was at little less harsh as to both of their characters. Whoever's been spreading that around must have seen him walk Honoka back to the school gate. He probably still had his integrity in their eyes. Three: Izuku had been cheating on Uraraka with some girl who had found out and came to confront them both. In the end, Uraraka and the other girl decided they were both okay with it and agreed to let things stay the same.

…

Just… stop.

When Izuku had first heard that one, his face had turned beat red and he had stuttered his way into a panicked refutation. He was pretty sure Uraraka was embarrassed by that one too. He had already been asked about what had happened by most of his friends over the weekend and all of the girls seemed intent on setting things straight for Uraraka's sake, especially Tsuyu.

Of course, that wasn't going to stop all the gossip in class 1-B. At least Izuku didn't have to hear from them often. With that in mind, Izuku speed-walked to class on Monday morning with the full intention not to stop to talk to anybody. This worked just fine as he went twenty minutes early and sat in the classroom alone. That was all fine and well for avoiding class 1-B, but that meant that whoever got to class early enough could talk to him before they were forced to be quiet.

The most awkward part was when the next person to walk in _didn't_ talk to him. No, this person didn't even glance his way only sitting in front of him like always. Was Katsuki always this early to class? Well, he was certainly never late like one might think he'd be with that delinquent attitude of his.

Katsuki didn't take out anything to put on his desk or get a pencil ready, he just sat there. It reminded Izuku that he never seemed to take any notes and sometimes it was hard to tell if he actually paid attention in class. Yet still, Katsuki managed to get better academic marks than he did.

Was today special? Or was this normal? Izuku always talked to his friends before class started so he never paid attention to this kind of detail. Surely Katsuki had heard the rumors by now, right? Izuku had been thinking about this, he felt a little bad for Honoka. If she had a serious crush on Katsuki (how she knew who he was, he still hadn't asked), then she was undoubtably out of luck because Katsuki would probably stay as far away from her as possible simply because of their association.

If only he could return the favor of earlier and clear things up for her. Not that this was possible. The odds of Katsuki listening and caring were beyond slim at best. But there was this strange part of him that wanted to try, not for Honoka's sake but to see what Katsuki would do, to see if Katsuki might surprise him like he has in subtle ways lately.

"U-um, Kacchan?" he tried. Now might be the only time in the near future that they would be alone together, not something he could pass up if his curiosity had any say. Which it seemed to be getting more of that as his confidence increased.

Nothing. Not a twitch. Being completely ignored was also interesting in and of itself.

"Kacchan," he leaned closer in his seat so that he didn't have to get louder to get the same effect.

"What." Still not a glance, it didn't even sound like a question.

He'd take it. "Do you always come to class this early?"

"No."

He had been hoping that leading with an unexpected question instead of the topic they probably both had on their minds, being the only two in the room and all, would get more of a reaction, or at least a more thought out reply. No such luck. But really, was there ever luck to be had around this fire?

"Then why are you here so early?" They still had a good fifteen minutes.

"None of your fucking business."

Uh-huh, yeah, as expected. "Could it have anything to do with something that happened recently?" Izuku tried to bait him.

Katsuki turned to him and, yeah he was definitely glaring. Izuku backed away in his chair to make sure that not only was he out of grabbing distance, but that there was also enough room between his legs and the desk so that he could escape if need be.

"I finished my run faster today, you shitty nerd," he growled.

Well, now that Izuku had his full attention and he seemed to be content with glaring instead of charging at him… "Do you know the girl I met on Friday? Ishise-san?" There, maybe that was subtle enough that Katsuki wouldn't call him out on it.

Katsuki pointed with his thumb over his shoulder at the window. "Go jump," he said in what was definitely a calm tone for him.

And that was probably as close as Izuku would get. He couldn't tell whether that order to off himself was an affirmative to his question or a negative. Still, Izuku did manage to disassociate himself from Honoka up until Friday afternoon. That was as much help as he could give her at this stage.

Now to just deal with his classmates. Even believing the truth, Kirishima would not stop teasing him. And it would all be worse with Katsuki right in front of him the whole time.

* * *

This time, Honoka was waiting for Izuku next to the front doors of the school. This meant that they were in full view of all the classes leaving but because she simply fell in step beside him, they blended in.

"Good afternoon," she bowed slightly towards Iida and Uraraka who were, of course, walking with him.

They greeted her back and Izuku prayed that they could somehow smoothly separate themselves from his friends. He had told them that Honoka would be coming to ask him questions and whatnot after school for a while but he hadn't told them that this would be a private matter or anything. He was hoping they would pick up on the atmosphere themselves. He just had to send out all the vibes he could.

"I'm Uraraka Ochaco, sorry I forgot to introduce myself last time," Uraraka smiled at her.

Honoka blinked and then looked to Izuku like she was asking something with her eyes. Izuku didn't get the question so he shrugged.

"And I'm Iida Tenya, it is a pleasure to meet you formally." Iida managed to bowed rigidly while walking.

Honoka smiled awkwardly, "It's a pleasure to meet you too."

Uraraka seemed to notice that Honoka had a bag with her this time. "Did you bring stuff for your studying with Deku-kun?"

Honoka nodded. She pulled out a note pad and pencil. "I didn't know what you usually did after school but I thought I could just accompany you as you go about whatever it is you do for a while," she told Izuku.

"Oh, yeah. I usually workout in one of the training areas before I do my homework. I also train while I do my homework and then I do a more normal workout in the evening."

"Um…" she made a sound.

"You can wait in the lobby while I go change." He opened the door to the class 1-A dorms and held it for the three with him. He was at the elevator before Honoka could think of a response and so were Uraraka and Iida. As the three UA students got on the elevator, two of them looked back at Honoka.

Gone was the air of playful teasing and apprehensive tension. The sound of Izuku's words had triggered something Honoka didn't get.

"We've got our own training too," Iida said by way of explanation.

Uraraka smiled so big that her eyes closed. "No time to waste."

"Oh." And Honoka was left by herself in the lobby, standing instead of making herself comfortable. They all suddenly got serious. They each were determined unlike anything she had seen before. Not up close anyway. It both impressed and intimidated her.

Even though she was by herself, that did not mean she was alone. The first students to come up and talk to her were the bravest. Or maybe the nosiest.

"Are you here to see Midoriya-kun?" asked a girl with pink skin, pink hair, horns and beady eyes.

The other thing that had approached was less of a student and more of a girls uniform stretched around what appeared to be the empty shape of a female body. It talked. "Do you want us to go get him for you?" They must have just walked in.

"Uh, I'm fine, I don't need any help," she forced a smile wanting them to leave her alone.

"So you _are_ here to see him? Hey, do you like him? Is it true that you just met him the other day?" the pink one persisted.

"I'm only here to research Midoriya-san's problem with his quirk hurting him when he tries to use it. This is strictly business," Honoka tried to clarify.

The pink one gave her a confused look. Honoka chose to focus on the one with an actual face because she couldn't tell what the other one was doing which kinda creeped her out.

"Huh? But you don't—"

Honoka's eyes starting following someone behind the girls, making the pink one stop mid-sentence to look.

The uniform gasped. "No way!"

The person they were all staring at walked right up the stairs without acknowledging their presence. The girls turned back to Honoka.

"Do you want us to try and set you up with him?" the pink one asked.

"What? Nonononononono," Honoka held up her hands in front of her while her own face turned from pink to red.

"Yes, this is perfect!" the uniform girl might have clapped her hands together. At least, that's what it sounded like.

The pink one turned to the uniform. "I know! There aren't any girls in our grade with a crush on him, so this could be really fun! I hear there are some second year girls that like him but I bet they've never come face to face with his attitude."

"But if she likes him anyway! Aw!" the uniform sighed dreamily and the pink one giggled in response.

"I told you, no. I don't need any help in this matter either," Honoka got back their attention.

They smiled at her. "I'm Ashido Mina and this is Hagakure Toru-chan."

"And you definitely need our help, he just walked by and you look like you're in love!" Hagakure insisted.

"I'm not in love, it's just a crush!"

"Oh! She admitted it!"

When Izuku stepped off the elevator back into the lobby, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Ashido and Hagakure had practically cornered Honoka who looked like she might keel over from heat stroke. Izuku rushed over to see what was going on but regretted it immediately when the girls turned to him.

"Ah! Midoriya-kun! Since you were childhood friends with Bakugo-kun, you should help us set him and your new friend up!"

Honoka's face went from red to pale as she looked at him. He thought his face mirrored hers. Shit.

* * *

A/N: You know, I'd planned on talking about Honoka's quirk in chapter 1, then in chapter 2, then in chapter 3. I find this more entertaining anyway. We'll get there eventually!


	4. Chapter 4

Honoka looked down at the ground. Izuku had to get out of this situation. For some reason, this was stressful. Izuku didn't want Honoka to be upset with him and it was causing him more anxiety in this moment since he couldn't talk to her freely in front of Ashido and Hagakure. He looked to his classmates who were looking between him and Honoka having noticed something happen without being spoken.

"U-um, sorry Ashido-san, Hagakure-san, Ishise-san and I were going to go on a run together. Um…" he was really struggling with finding words. He didn't want to sound pushy or territorial. Surely both intones would be misunderstood. Plus, the last thing he wanted was to hurt their feelings unintentionally. He would try explaining the situation and see if that helped. "You see, Ishise-san is pretty shy about that kind of thing… I don't think she wanted everyone to know."

He looked at her to see if she'd agree for him but she continued to look at her feet. "She'll be around the school a lot more often from now on, so if you give it some time… maybe you guys could make friends with her first?" he asked hopefully.

Ashido blinked at him.

Hagakure turned to Honoka, "So you're name's Ishise? Sorry we moved too fast!"

"Yeah, it's just that, everyone's been talking about you all weekend so when I saw you, I immediately got carried away." Ashido lowered her voice, "I'll keep your crush a secret but uh… I'm sorry, the damage might already be done." She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

The girls hadn't exactly been quiet in their excitement and this was a common area. Other students had been walking in and out this whole time.

Honoka wouldn't talk to them and wouldn't look up. Izuku had been sweating bullets hoping that Ashido and Hagakure would understand but now he thinks he was focusing on the wrong thing. He frowned deeply and felt a little lurch in his gut.

Ashido started to look really concerned and Hagakure approach Honoka cautiously. "Uh, Ishise-san? Are you all right?" Hagakure asked.

"We're really sorry," Ashido tried. "Is there anything we can do for you? Something to make it up to you?"

Still nothing. Ashido and Hagakure looked at each other (as much as they could) and then tried to find something else to say. Izuku wanted to get them all out of this situation at this point, so he saved them all by grabbing Honoka's wrist and pulling her away from Ashido and Hagakure, away from the dorms and away from the school building. No one tried to stop him, not even Honoka. She probably didn't even know where she was being led since she still wouldn't look up.

Izuku usually ran to whichever training area he felt like practicing in on a given day. The UA campus was huge so just the way there and back made for a decent run. He wasn't going to start running and pull Honoka along with him, but he did move in that direction to get them away from the concentration of people before he stopped and stood facing her.

Izuku felt increasingly more anxious and nauseous the longer Honoka wouldn't look at him. He wanted to say something but he was starting to feel overwhelmed and dizzy. He flinched out of his skin when Honoka grabbed his hand. Immediately his head cleared, his muscles relaxed, his soreness left him and the nausea dissipated. He squeezed her hand as he let go of his anxiety and then dropped it. He stared at her.

"How did you do that?" That was beyond just healing.

"That was mostly my fault. It's a side effect of my quirk. Once I use it on someone, they start to care much more about me than is normally natural for the amount of exposure they've had to me. I could feel it from you. It wasn't going to stop until I took it away and dealt with it myself." It was like she was angry at the ground the way she was glaring at it.

Although Izuku felt much more confident than he logically should in this situation, he knew in his gut that he had to address what was being said in her tone before he could question what she was actually saying. He had to take a second to keep from smiling because he knew this was serious. Seriously though, what _did_ she do to him?

"You're mad at me, aren't you?"

She said nothing so he took that as a yes. He saw no point in restraining himself from using the nickname he has for Katsuki now that she knew of their former closeness. …If you could call it that.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you that Kacchan and I were childhood friends."

At that she not only looked up at him but glared and kicked him in the shin. "Ow!" Yes, that one had hurt, only because there's not much padding between the skin and the bone. He knelt and clutched at the wound as an instinctual reaction.

" _Kacchan?!_ What the fuck is that?"

Izuku opened his mouth but almost breathed in her hand as she did exactly what she had done the last time they had seen each other and healed the place she had just inflicted damage upon. Okay, if she kept this up he was definitely going to regret having anything to do with her. Healing him immediately afterward didn't make it right.

Now that he though about it, she and Katsuki could be perfect for each other. That, or two volatile substances coming in contact with each other. No way to know for now.

"We talked for more than an hour on Friday and you were so tight lipped about everything!" She put her hand over her face and hid herself. "I'm just so— I'm embarrassed."

Oh. That hadn't been what he was expecting. He didn't understand the way girls thought. Was she just embarrassed? Does this mean she wasn't mad?

"I'm sorry," he repeated, not knowing what else to say.

She brought her hand away from her face. "I know," it sounded like she was conceding defeat of some kind. "I think I get why you didn't want to tell me right away. If someone had suddenly asked me tons of questions like that about someone I was close to, I probably wouldn't tell them anything either. I must have been really annoying."

Wait, wait, wait. That made it sound like she thought he was trying to protect Katsuki which, admittedly, had been the farthest thing from his mind at the time. "Kacchan and I haven't been close since we were little kids. Nowadays I think he hates me."

Honoka looked confused. "Then why do you call him something so cute like Kacchan?"

Izuku blinked. Did she really have to say cute? He hadn't thought about it that way. This was exactly why he didn't want to talk about this! He didn't want to question the things he's been doing habitually for years now! It's moved into the realm of tradition! How was he supposed to respond to that? He called Katsuki Kacchan because to him he was Kacchan, that's it! That… and maybe because a small part of him wished that they were still friends and that none of the bullying he'd experienced had ever happened. Maybe he held out some sort of hope because even through all of this, Katsuki had never once complained to him about being called Kacchan. You see his point! He didn't want to think about this!

"Um… Izuku-san… I can't understand you when you're mumbling," Honoka said more softly than expected.

Ahhhhh! His faced turned bright red. He had to stop doing that! His only consultation in this was that she hadn't understood a word he'd said. …Hopefully.

"S-sorry. Honoka-san, do we really have to talk about _him_ right now?" he had to force himself not to just say Kacchan again.

Honoka sighed. "No, I guess not. It's probably not very fair for me to ask anyway. I guess…" she sighed again. "I need to tell you a lot in return, there's no reason for you to truly trust me until I do."

She looked around them. "Where were you planning on going?"

He stood up thinking they might finally get somewhere. "There's a training area with a mountainous terrain I wanted to practice in today. It's up that way," he pointed into the distance in the direction away from the school building.

"Okay, I'll tell you about myself as we head that way," she started walking.

"Honoka-san," he stopped her. "I usually run there, is that okay?"

She hesitated and looked apprehensive about answering.

Izuku smiled, feeling good again. "Don't worry, I'll keep pace with you if you need it. This run is just about getting there faster than it would take walking. I have a different run I do in the mornings before school."

"Are you always working out?" Honoka asked incredulously.

Izuku laughed a little. "Not all the time, but I need to get stronger as fast as I can," he didn't explain further but she got it.

"Okay, I'll try, but I have to warn you, I might have to stop."

"I'll match your pace," Izuku reassured.

She gripped the strap of her bag and held it as she started at a pace that Izuku would consider a light jog. Still, faster than walking, Izuku thought. Once they got going, Izuku made sure to establish the path they would take and stuck to her side.

"So, your quirk first, if that's all right," Izuku wanted to get that down pat since it was what he was currently most curious about.

"Yeah, that's okay."

She was panting slightly already so Izuku took note to give her time to talk at her own pace as well.

"Uh, I haven't come up with a name for it. Don't heroes have names for their quirks?"

Izuku hadn't really thought about that so much. He hadn't named his own after all. "I'm pretty sure most people name their quirks, not just heroes. It makes it easier in the quirk registry." That gave him a thought. "Yours isn't in the registry, right?"

"Of course not. They have me down as quirkless. At first when I was around the age your quirk starts to appear, my parents thought I was quirkless. So did I, actually. The doctors couldn't figure it out. But I had another problem that started happening around that time. I started falling unconscious whenever I'd play outside. There was nothing physically wrong with me though so my parents got really worried.

"Eventually they stopped letting me out of the house so that they could watch me more closely to try and figure out what was going on. My mom took a bunch of time off of work to stay home with me. One day while I was playing in the backyard I fell and scraped up my arm trying to catch myself. We had one of those concrete patios. I didn't hit my head or anything, I was barely bleeding, but I passed out on the spot. My mom turned me over and apparently watched as my scrapes healed in just a few seconds. Shortly after, I woke up. My mom was smart enough to seek a specialist who would keep everything off record. My body's regenerative capabilities were more than 100 times faster than that of a normal person. The specialist looked at my cells and found that about a third of my body was made up of stem cells. I started to feel hungry and thirsty all the time. It got to the point where I literally could not eat enough to sustain myself because my body was using up so much energy continually regenerating things like my skin and muscles. A high calorie bar was produced to save my life so that I could go spans of time without eating." Honoka stopped talking so that she could pull a tube from her bag and suck on it. She must have had a large pack of water in the bag she carried.

Izuku started to feel a little concerned about making her run but since she wasn't stopping yet, he didn't say anything.

After gulping down a significant amount of water, Honoka panted for breath before she continued. "Of course, that wasn't the only thing that was going on. I was passing out because my body would focus all of it's energy on healing a wound and would cut off all the energy being supplied to any function that was unnecessary. I figured out that the more I hurt myself and then healed myself, the more severe the injury would have to be for me to fall unconscious. I needed to keep that up to protect myself from dangerous situations."

Izuku got the feeling that there was something dark she was leaving unsaid. He felt that way because he knew that if he had that problem he would undoubtable do things with purpose instead of waiting for misfortune to come train him.

She took another quick swig of water. "As I got better at eating enough and healing without passing out, my parents decided I could go back to school. Encountering other people meant encountering other people's injuries. I felt compelled… very strongly compelled to touch other people's injuries. I can't even explain it. I feel the damage around me… Well…" she struggled. "I don't know what to call it. When others are in pain, I know. I wouldn't say that I feel their pain but I know exactly where it is and what it is. I get this urge that is so hard to suppress… I also haven't really figured out how I do it but I exchange my healthy cells for another person's damaged cells when I touch them. Then I have their injury and I heal from it. So, I really only heal myself. Whatever else it is that my quirk does essentially heals others. With that, I only went to public school with other kids through my first year of middle school. After a while it was becoming too dangerous for me to be around other people."

Honoka looked at Izuku. "You look like you want to ask the very question that's made life so dangerous for me."

Izuku didn't say anything.

"Could I make someone live forever? The answer is: I don't know."

For once, that was exactly what Izuku had been thinking. He could see why her quirk was so dangerous for her. If a villain ever learned about this and then kidnapped her, the world might be in trouble.

"I'm sorry," Izuku said simply.

"What? Why?" Honoka didn't seem to understand.

"That's a hard hand to be dealt."

Honoka gave a half smile. "I don't know any different."

That sentiment struck him. He hadn't known what it was like to be anything but quirkless for most of his life, and yet he had been completely miserable because of it. Maybe she wasn't bullied, he didn't know, but surely she must have been lonely. He knew what that was like too, but he had friends now. Then again, he got friends after getting a quirk. She was pretty stuck in her circumstances, he had found a way out of his. Did he have all the luck in the world? Or was this the universe's way of balancing things out for him? He felt… a bit ashamed.

She continued on without him. "I don't know the limits of my quirk, I don't know how much I can heal without dying, I don't even know if I can die. That's why I want to train with you. Well, in a sense. This running wasn't what I had in mind, but I want to get better at healing you specifically. I think I can do that by even just doing small things like healing the little tears in your muscles from working out. I also want to do some experiments to try to understand my quirk better."

All this was great but Izuku was finding it hard to keep up. How could she move on from those hard things to this so quickly? She wasn't giving him the time to process it.

She not only stopped talking to catch her breath but stopped running all together. She was panting hard with her hands on her knees.

Izuku stopped with her. "Honoka-san, are you okay?"

She let herself fall down on her butt and pulled her bag in front of her. She opened it and pulled out a packaged energy bar that he recognized. A bunch of heroes apparently ate this type of bar when training for hours and hours on end so that they wouldn't have to stop to eat for very long. Heroes and Olympic athletes whose jobs were to train nearly 24/7.

She ate the whole thing even though they weren't even a quarter of the way to their destination. This was going to be tough.

He thought this through before saying anything. "Honoka-san, you haven't trained your body much because you get hungry and thirsty really fast, right?"

Honoka nodded her head as she panted and drank some water.

"Well, the only way to improve yourself, at anything, is to push yourself harder. You intend to do that with your quirk to heal me, right? Why should your body and the aspect of your quirk that heals yourself be any different?"

Honoka stopped panting but didn't say anything.

"Ordinary humans can regenerate their stamina even while running. Normal people have pushed themselves to run for days without stopping or sleeping. You should be able to do that even better than someone like me. Look, you've already stopped panting. You're breathing completely normally. You can eat and drink while you run. That's not something that takes anyone special either."

Honoka wanted to make a point. "Izuku-san, my body also processes sustenance more quickly. The more I eat and drink, the faster I'll have to go to the bathroom."

Izuku wasn't sure how she was going to take this, so he said it slowly. "Normally I would say that you should never hold it in because it's bad for you, but in your case… there wouldn't be any permanent damage."

Honoka's face turned pink and seeing her reaction, his did also.

She eventually hung her head. "You're the worst."

"Uh, I wasn't trying to—"

Honoka stopped him. "No, I mean, you've forced me to exhaust my excuses." She stood up. "Guess I better run."

Izuku suddenly felt a bit of pride. Maybe it was the side effects of Honoka's quirk, but he was starting to feel attached to her. He smiled and started to run a bit faster than they had been before. Honoka didn't look happy about it, but she followed and breathed hard.

It was long past dark by the time they were at the school gates to say goodbye. Izuku had found himself teaching Honoka a lot of exercises and basic fighting moves. It was more just so he felt less weird about her watching him the whole time, which she did a lot of. He also thought about how this whole time, no one had thought to teach her any real self-defense. She still could very well get kidnapped someday, so he felt the need to prepare her so that the chances of that happening decreased. Just as he had thought, as long as she had water and food, her stamina was endless.

When they stopped at the school gate Honoka turned to him and took his hand. He felt all the day's blood, sweat and tears, so to speak, wash away at her touch.

"I'm not going to leave you like that," she explained softly.

Izuku couldn't find a response.

"I'll see you again tomorrow, if that's okay?" she asked like she thought she needed to.

Izuku didn't think so. "Yeah, come," he said simply.

She smiled. There was a silence where they just looked at each other. Izuku had the thought that her quirk was very intimate. She essentially shared all his pain, and would continue to do so from now on.

She let her hand slip away from his and turned to leave. Izuku watched her go for quite a while. Maybe he _could_ deal with her. For just that night, he forgot all about her crush on Katsuki. Too bad he'd remember it the second he woke up the next morning.

* * *

A/N: Any thoughts on her quirk? Loved it? Hated it? Indifferent? I really wanted it to be almost completely useless in an actual fight since we don't get to see much of that in the series itself. You know, since the story's about superheroes.


	5. Chapter 5

Over the course of the following two weeks, Honoka and Izuku had gotten into a routine of sorts. They had decided that Honoka would visit him at the school every day he wasn't at his internship except for Saturdays even if he had no plans. Honoka had insisted that Izuku got his Saturdays to himself to do whatever he wanted. Izuku hadn't really cared though since either way he saw all of his friends on a regular basis.

On days they would meet, she would take the bus over to the school and meet one of the UA staff to be let in the gate. Since that first Monday when she was humiliated (her words) in the lobby of the dorms, she had taken to meeting Izuku on the path toward all of UA's special training grounds. From there it had been much the same. Izuku would work on his techniques while Honoka observed. Izuku would eventually feel weird enough about being watched so closely that he'd teach Honoka something to divide her attention. Before leaving, they'd stretch and talk. About anything, really. Nothing too specific and nothing too personal. It was more like now that they had gotten the initial pertinent and personal information out of the way, they were getting to know each other at a more natural rate. There were now no more requirements to divulge anything too personal to make this work.

And with that, they were comfortable yet awkward with each other. The nature of Honoka's quirk meant that they touched each other a lot, without thinking and without hesitation. However, as soon as they were unsure or they thought about it, well… things got awkward real fast. Perhaps it would have been easier for foreigners who touched each other all the time, or so they've heard, but for two bred, born and raised Japanese individuals, they would inevitably hit a wall in which they _had_ to think about it. Not that either of them considered this a bad thing, but it was certainly making their relationship _unique_.

No one was really bothering them since they had mostly managed to keep their interactions away from the rest of the student body. So far, that is. At this rate, it would take something unprecedented, a break from routine to change that.

Which is exactly what happened that Tuesday when Honoka appeared at the school close to the first years' lunch hour. Then, during the first years' lunch hour, Honoka had been given directions to the 1-A classroom. Honoka was in front of the door looking through the window, moving her head about trying to see who all was in the classroom when someone approached her from behind.

"Ishise-chan!" an invisible hand poked her shoulder.

"Ahh!" Honoka screeched as she jumped and turned to see nothing. Looking down she noticed the seemingly floating girls uniform and clutched at her racing heart as she tried to calm down. Luckily for her, the hallway was deserted.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" Honoka could feel a hand on her shoulder and because she couldn't see it, she shivered.

"Haga… kure? Right?" she asked.

"Oh wow, you remembered! I'm impressed!" Hagakure seemed happy. "So, how about for starting over? Is that okay?" she asked in a sweet sounding, hopeful way.

After a couple weeks of no one bothering her at the school, Honoka had mostly gotten over her embarrassment and planned on conquering the rest of it in time. It wasn't really Hagakure's fault that she got embarrassed. If Honoka had cared less, it wouldn't have mattered.

"Yeah, that sounds nice," she agreed.

"That's great, Ishise-chan!" Honoka could hear the smile in Hagakure's voice.

Intention wise, Hagakure did seem pretty nice.

"You're probably looking for Midoriya-kun again, right? Almost everyone eats in the cafeteria since we all live in the dorms. Want me to help you look for him? I can show you the way," Hagakure offered.

"Well… uh," Honoka glanced back at the window of the classroom.

Hagakure lowered her voiced to a whisper and got close. "Can I look? No one will see me."

Honoka thought about it and then nodded knowing what Hagakure would infer. Hagakure peeked through the window and didn't have to look hard to see one person sitting at his desk in clear view from where she was. She tried not to act too bubbly about it this time and instead thought about what was actually going on.

She continued to keep her voice down for Honoka's sake. "That's strange, I wonder why Bakugo-kun isn't eating lunch," she pondered.

Honoka didn't say anything in response so Hagakure filled the gap. "So were you planning on watching him from the window until someone came along or were you actually going to go in?"

Honoka laughed almost like someone else would choke. She didn't know why exactly she had laughed but Hagakure seemed like she would have accepted any answer as perfectly acceptable. Honoka wondered if it had anything to do with her invisibility.

"Could you just wait outside for a while? I'd still like help finding Izuku-san." She had only realized after it had come out that she had let Izuku's given name slip. She hadn't had to use his surname in a while since it's been just the two of them.

"Yeah, I'll wait."

Maybe Hagakure hadn't noticed, though, it was hard to tell if she thought nothing of it without being able to see her face. Honoka just decided to accept whatever it was for now. She smiled to show her thanks and went into the classroom.

As soon as the door was shut in front of her, Hagakure flipped out her phone and typed like mad.

[ _SOS_ _Kyoka! Emergency! Get to our classroom asap!_ ]

Inside the classroom Honoka looked to see Katsuki leaning his chair back and staring up at the ceiling in thought. The sunlight coming in from the windows behind him made his hair glow a warm sunny gold. Having not really had the chance to look at his profile since recognizing him for who he was, she could have stared if he hadn't turned his head to see who had entered the room.

She did hold eye contact for a few beats before glancing around the room to confirm that, yes, they were in fact alone. After Katsuki said nothing, she decided she'd have to make the first move. She walked halfway to him.

"Hi," was what she opened with. Expectations held for too long did not make for good conversation. What she supplied did get things started though.

"Honoka," he stated.

She wanted to smile but she knew that it'd be bad to get her hopes up too soon. They'd said one word each.

"Do you actually remember my name or is it just because your classmates have been talking about me?" Hope! Hope, stay down!

Katsuki leaned back further in a causal way. "Didn't know your surname was Ishise." Okay Hope, you can kneel.

"You mean, you forgot?" she asked with less despair.

"No, I'm pretty sure your mom only introduced you as Honoka." And Hope stood up in her heart and raised its fists in victory.

She was suddenly elated and stepped a little closer. "So you do remember me. I had no idea that you went to this school until I saw you. I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again," she started talking a bit more freely.

"You don't watch the news?" Katsuki was… incredulously… maybe? But the look on his face made her think he thought she was dumb.

Her face turned pink and she looked away. "Should I?" she threw out.

Katsuki put his feet down. "Maybe for safety or politics, but the stuff you'd see me in is pointless for you," he had this strange undertone going on.

She had no idea what he might mean by that. It was strange, talking to him after so long. She decided to look at him again.

"I've become a doctor," she told him. "Well, an apprentice."

This time Katsuki looked away. "So I've heard," he said into his hand.

She hesitated for a second, not knowing if she was treading into dangerous waters. She didn't want to hide anything she didn't have to from him. "Izuku agreed to let me help him, given his condition."

Katsuki was silent for a moment. "Did that fuckin' nerd tell you about his quirk?"

Having never heard Katsuki cuss in front of her, Honoka was stunned before she could respond. "Uh, I've read all about it and I've seen him using it in training," she nearly stuttered to life.

"Then he's said nothing. Smart, but that still makes him a shitty coward," Katsuki said to himself. It was still loud enough for Honoka to hear it.

This was unexpected and therefore, difficult for her to handle. He was making her feel defensive. "Katsuki, if that's what you have to say about someone like him, what are you doing in the hero class?"

Katsuki stood and approached her. His walk was neither intimidating nor predatory yet Honoka's face burned and her heart rate picked up the pace. It was hard for her to concentrate on anything besides his very presence with him this close to her. She made her best effort.

"I earned my way into this course and I intent to earn my way through it. I intent to be the number one hero and for that purpose, I'll get stronger than anyone else. Deku may have earned his initial luck, but he hasn't earned jack-shit since. Even with all that he's been given, he still can't beat me. Yet he continues to shout that he'll be number one. You want to help him? If you help make him stronger then fine, but the least he should do is respect you by telling you the truth. You'll be risking a lot to help him, won't you?" She could tell he was angry but he wasn't yelling at her.

"Tell me what truth?"

His eyes narrowed like he was hiding something sinister. "Ask Deku."

She considered the things he had said. "What's your quirk?" she asked quietly. They were close enough that he'd hear her anyway. She had never asked him before and he had never told her.

He clenched his hands.

"Your hands, they're burnt," she looked down at them after saying this.

Something flashed in Katsuki's eyes. "How did you know? You weren't looking."

Katsuki was smart and observant, Honoka realized. Her heart stopped this time. She didn't know what to say. She found herself saying, "They hurt," before she could stop herself.

She needed to get out of here. She felt that compulsion, that strong urge to grab his hands. She couldn't do that. She knew she couldn't. She had to restrain herself.

He was staring at her so she looked up to stare back and keep herself from reaching for him. While he was analyzing her, she was blushing.

If he wasn't going to say anything, she was going to have to do it. "I didn't actually come here to talk to you, I have to go find Izuku-san before the lunch hour is over."

Even though she said this, her eyes would have one believe she'd said nothing as nothing had changed. She still hadn't broken her own spell that was keeping her there.

Katsuki's gaze turned into a glare and he tsked at her. She inhaled a deep breath and then whipped herself around so that she could get out of there. He grabbed her wrist to stop her and she gasped. The sleeve of her shirt stopped instinct from taking over as she fought the desire that literally no one else could understand. She felt pain in her wrist and stabbing in her head as she tore her arm violently away from him. Her very genetic makeup screamed as she broke contact without having done anything to ease his pain.

She ran out the classroom door and slammed it shut behind her. She took a minute to stop herself from hyperventilating as her instinct told her he wouldn't follow. When she finally took notice of her surroundings she was greeted with wide eyes blinking at her from at girl she hadn't met. For all she knew, Hagakure was doing the same thing.

"Woah. He didn't yell at you. I've never heard Bakugo stay that calm that far into a conversation," the girl she didn't recognize said in awe.

"Maybe there really is something there," Hagakure sounded equally awed.

Honoka ignored what they had said and ignored that they had been eavesdropping. She started marching down the hallway not knowing if it was the way.

"Can you help me find Izuku-san?" she asked in a rush.

The two girls caught up with her and Hagakure took the lead. "Right, yeah, follow me."

Even though she wanted nothing more than silence the girls wanted conversation and they were going to get their way somehow. "This is Jiro Kyoka, by the way. Her quirk lets her hear through walls among other things," Hagakure didn't even beat around the bush about it.

Honoka didn't care at the moment so she accepted without contemplating anything. "Fine, if she's your friend and you trust her, then fine."

"Toru-chan gave me the lowdown on the situation and made me swear not to tell anyone. I think I've become a fan of yours, that was amazing. You nailed him about his attitude and got out scot-free!" Jiro grinned at her.

Honoka didn't see how any of that was impressive or worthy of praise.

"I couldn't hear anything on my own so we didn't hear the whole conversation," Hagakure threw in. For some reason. At this point, was there a point?

Honoka needed to get to Izuku _now_.

Once in the cafeteria, the girls seemed to know which area to head to, so instead of trying to scan for herself, she let them do the work. As soon as she saw Izuku, she booked it over there surprising him and everyone else at the table. Her serious expression alerted Izuku that something was wrong.

"Ishise-san?" he asked as she grabbed his wrist and pulled him to his feet.

"I need you to come with me, _right now_."

The urgency in her voice compelled him to respond in kind and rush out of the cafeteria with her until they found a place out of sight from everyone else. She suddenly turned on him and crushed him in the tightest hug she could muster. The skin on skin contact of her hand to the back of his neck allowed her to ease the soreness that had yet to set in from this morning. Even after healing him, she still clung to him tightly. He had to keep his muscles tense so that he could breath properly.

Izuku waited for her to tell him what was going on. For her, healing him in this state didn't feel like enough but it was something.

Eventually, "I came here to talk to Recovery Girl about helping me with an experiment to understand my quirk better."

"She agreed to help?" he asked.

"Mhmm," she nodded against his hair.

"That's great!" he tried to sound excited. He thought of something else. "You know how you wanted us to have a way to communicate more easily and more subtly than with our cell phones in case we need each other in the middle of something? I know someone in the support class that's really innovative. She could probably make something for us. Heck, she'd probably love to do it."

"Mm, that sounds great."

Okay, that was enough. "What happened?"

She let off the pressure just a little. "I got to talk to Katsuki."

He flinched. "What did he do? Did he hurt you?!" he was suddenly angry.

"No, no. It was his palms."

Izuku put two and two together in an instant.

"They were burnt and I couldn't heal them."

That explained everything to him. He didn't need to know the rest. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her back. All the anxiety he should have been feeling was being taken away through a warm hand. Somehow… a part of him was glad that she didn't heal Katsuki even though she had desperately wanted to. Aside from the obvious reasons why she shouldn't go around healing just anyone. No, a part of him was desperately relieved that she ran to him instead. What part of him that was, he didn't know. He wouldn't let go of her for a long time.

* * *

A/N: So... what do you think? Is it what you expected? When I first started writing this I wanted to make the joke that this story was rated T for language and hand holding but then I thought someone might actually take me seriously and think that the characters would only ever get to hand holding. Happy Valentines Day! Also, I'd like to give an extra special thank you to Grenobi. I'm really glad you like the story so far!


	6. Chapter 6

After watching Izuku and the oh-so-infamous Ishise-san rush out of the cafeteria together, the first years at the table all looked to Jiro and Hagakure for an explanation.

"Don't look at us, we don't know what that was about!" Hagakure waved her arms in front of herself, the only indication being the movement of her sleeves.

"It looked pretty serious," Uraraka commented, turning to Iida.

"I wonder how she acquired a visitors pass at this hour?" Iida, ever strict, looked back toward the cafeteria exit.

"Whatever you do, don't go after them Iida-kun. Whatever it's about, Deku-kun can handle it."

"Midoriya-chan's been spending a lot of time with Ishise-san lately, right? Are you sure we shouldn't be concerned at all, Ochaco-chan? I don't want Midoriya-chan to lose focus," Tsuyu put a finger to her mouth as she thought out loud.

"No, I think it's all right. In fact, I'd say Deku-kun has been more focused lately. He gets his homework done in half the time," Uraraka supplied.

"Yeah, even though I wouldn't say Midoriya-kun needs much help, he's been asking me to help him with any of his homework that he's struggling with. He'd only do that when we'd study as a group before," Yaoyorozu said with pride.

"He's been coming to you?!" Iida asked, seemingly defeated.

Yaoyorozu rubbed the back of her head not knowing if she should try to reassure him that it probably wasn't personal. "Uhh…"

"Do you think all of that could be so that he can spend more time with Ishise-chan?" Hagakure sat down next to Yaoyorozu followed by Jiro.

Everyone looked at the space where her face should be. "Well, if you think about it, he sees her after class, right? Well the faster he gets all his written work done, the more time he can afford to spend with her," she pointed out.

Uraraka stepped in, "Well by that logic, it could be the reverse too. It could be that since he's spending time with her, he has to get his work done faster or he'll never get it done in time."

Tsuyu turned to her. "So are you worried after all?"

"Like I said, he can handle it," Uraraka insisted.

Tsuyu dropped it but only the verbal portion, she could still say a lot with her eyes. Uraraka looked away on purpose to force the conversation to stop.

"So then, Kyoka-chan, what did you rush away for?" Yaoyorozu asked.

Jiro's faced turned a little pink because she knew she couldn't just tell everyone that Hagakure had asked her to help her eavesdrop and that on top of that, she had _agreed_.

"Toru-chan wanted help with something but then Ishise-san asked us to help her find Midoriya-san." This was actually true, it just left out all the important details.

"And you don't know why she showed up in the middle of school either?" Tsuyu asked, wanting to get all the information she could.

"No, she did say that she had to talk to him though." Also true, but Honoka hadn't exactly said that directly to Jiro.

"Well then we can ask Midoriya-chan about it when he gets back," Tsuyu made sure that everyone knew the plan.

From there the subject was changed and they went on without the drama. Izuku didn't come back to the lunch room as it got close to time to go back though, so they returned to their classroom without him. He wasn't in the classroom when they got back either. In fact, Aizawa-sensei beat him to class with ease.

He arrived right before the bell rang and slid into his seat. Not caring that she wasn't supposed to get out of her seat, Uraraka quickly appeared next to him and handed him a bread roll.

"I saved it from your tray since you didn't finish," she whispered.

"Thanks," he smiled at her.

"Uraraka, sit down," Aizawa-sensei instructed as she quickly made her way back to her seat.

"My apologies Sensei!" she bowed with honor before taking her seat.

Iida approved of that at the very least.

Izuku was grateful, the bread roll was really the only thing he could eat at his seat without being distracting. Which was probably the only reason Aizawa-sensei never said anything about it.

Now that he was sitting and facing forward, he unconsciously stared at the back of Katsuki's head. He hadn't asked Honoka about what they had talked about and he started wondering if he would be able to tell anything by watching the man in front of him. He wondered if Honoka had confessed her feelings to him. He wasn't really sure if there was a point in that though. He thought that Katsuki must have known already. That was, after all, one of the rumors going around.

Izuku couldn't really imagine what that would look like. He had never really seen a confession up close, but he also couldn't imagine how Katsuki would respond to that. He knew that they knew each other somehow, so how would he act around her? Or was it that she knew Katsuki but Katsuki didn't know her? He really wanted to ask Honoka but each time he didn't ask it felt harder and harder to ask at all. He was beginning to think that it might be easier to ask Katsuki instead. Maybe now that him and Honoka have apparently spoken he could provoke more out of him. Maybe? He considered it worth a shot.

As soon as their last class ended Katsuki got up from his seat immediately having already packed up his textbook and made to leave. Izuku stood in response and hurried to cram all his stuff into his bag. When he looked up toward the door ready to follow Katsuki, his sight was interrupted but Uraraka and Tsuyu standing next to him.

"Midoriya-chan, what happened with Ishise-san?" Tsuyu was right to the point.

Some of the other students were packing their stuff up very slowly and quietly so that they could hear whatever he had to say. Izuku looked between the two of them and realized he'd have to give some sort of explanation.

"Ishise-san went to meet with Recovery Girl about an experiment she wanted to try in order to help me. Recovery Girl told her that we were on lunch so she decided to come find me. She hasn't told me all of the details yet but Recovery Girl said she'd help." All of this was true but of course, none of that explained why Honoka had looked so urgent.

Both girls' brows knit. "But then why—"

Izuku decided to cut Uraraka off. "Could we talk about this later? I really want to talk to Kacchan before I leave for my internship," he pointed toward the door Katsuki left out of.

At this, Hagakure and Jiro looked at each other, or Jiro did. Hagakure may or may not have looked back.

Ashido sidled up to Hagakure and whispered close to her. "Bakugo-kun?"

Hagakure whispered back, "You missed something big, I'll tell you about it later."

Uraraka and Tsuyu stepped out of Izuku's way when he started to push forward anyway. As Izuku got close to the door Tsuyu made sure to square things away.

"We'll talk about it later."

Izuku nodded even though he wouldn't really be able to say much. He couldn't tell them anything about Honoka's quirk and the reason she had looked the way she did had everything to do with just that.

Izuku knew where Katsuki would be headed so he started to speed-walk in that direction. Once he was outside and unlikely to get yelled at by Iida, he ran toward the dorms. He caught up with Katsuki quickly enough because if this were a race, Katsuki didn't know about it.

"Kacchan!" he shouted to get him to stop.

He was half surprised when Katsuki did and turned to him casually. He looked way less upset and standoffish than the last time he had tried to talk to him about Honoka. Izuku stopped in front of him but out of grabbing distance.

"Can we talk somewhere else?" he wanted this to be less in the open than a lot of these conversations had been.

Katsuki simply turned and started walking away from the dorms. Izuku was perplexed that Katsuki was being cooperative and he wondered if this would last. Not one to test the limits too soon, he followed until they were out of everyone's way and Katsuki stopped. Katsuki wasn't going to speak first so they stared at each other for a while, still with plenty of space between them.

"Ishise-san told me that the two of you talked today. What did you talk about?" he demanded. He felt a kind of courage bubbling inside him that he never used to have. He felt less ashamed of himself now.

"You haven't told her about your quirk," Katsuki spat out.

Izuku wasn't sure if he was dodging or if that was a direct answer to his question. He wasn't going to admit to Katsuki here and now that he had been thinking about this very subject on repeat.

"Of course I haven't. I can't tell anyone about it. That would be stupid and dangerous and I can't break my promise to All Might," he affirmed.

"Are you telling me that or yourself?"

Ouch. Why was Katsuki so observant when he least wanted him to be. He hated that about him.

"She said she wants to help you, so what the fuck are you doing keeping that from her?! She's not going to be able to help if you string her along without telling her why you fuckin' have retarded problems in the first place!" Katsuki yelled at him.

The phrase "string her along" made Izuku just as angry as Katsuki appeared to be. The big difference between Katsuki when he's angry and Izuku when he's angry is that Izuku still has a filter and still won't shout just anything that comes to mind. He did yell back though.

"You know that I can't tell her even if I want to! It's not just to protect me but any future holders of One for All! You shouldn't even know about this! It's not your business, so fuck off!"

This, naturally, only made Katsuki angrier. "Of all the fuckin' people on this shitty planet, why did she have to help _you_!"

 _Of all the fuckin' people on the planet, why does she have to have a crush on you!_ Luckily, he didn't say this one out loud.

Katsuki started to make tiny explosions in his hands. He wasn't charging at Izuku but it was reminiscent of days not that far from memory. Still, he hadn't acted like this in quite a while. Izuku wasn't going to be intimidated.

"No matter what you say, _she_ chose _me_ out of everyone else there is to choose from! _She_ asked _me_ to be her partner for life!" Maybe he realized what he sounded like he was saying. Maybe he knew it was stupid to imply things that weren't even true. He was angry to the point where maybe he didn't have as much of a filter as he thought he did. Even if what he said was true, there was no way Honoka would be happy about this. Somehow, he didn't care about that. He only wanted Katsuki to get angrier and that was something he didn't have time to understand.

Katsuki dropped his hands and tilted his head toward the ground. He was suddenly quiet.

"What. The fuck." He quickly closed the gap between the two of them and gripped the front of Izuku's shirt. They looked each other dead in the eyes but Izuku stood firm and glared with conviction.

"If you can't stop being a coward, you'll never beat me," he told Izuku like he pitied him.

Izuku was stunned.

Katsuki shoved Izuku as he let go of his collar and stomped off. Izuku wasn't sure what part of what he had said made Katsuki say that. He could think of multiple ways in which Katsuki could have come to the conclusion that Izuku was still a coward. That very thought made Izuku reflect.

Maybe he was a coward. Lately, Katsuki's change in attitude sometimes made Izuku think that Katsuki actually _wanted_ Izuku to get stronger, that some part of him was _inviting_ Izuku to beat him in a real fight. It was almost as if Katsuki believed that was the way it should be.

The confidence was now gone from Izuku, he felt hollow. Not only had his taunt not worked, it hurt him instead. What was he supposed to do with this feeling? He hadn't gotten any of the information he had wanted and Katsuki led the conversation, as short as it was. He felt like he'd lost. Would he ever beat him at anything?

Just like that, he felt weak. Where was Honoka when he needed her? And that thought surprised him. It's not like he really _needed_ her, but it was becoming easier to be around her than to be apart from her. This was a problem. Even if she would stick to him for life, she made it clear that she wanted them to still be able to have separate social and romantic lives if they wanted to. She didn't want to get in his way and, he assumed, she didn't want him getting in her way either. He might be messing all of that up for the both of them. Not only with the things he had said but with the things he was feeling. He was beyond confused. He had no idea how he'd next face her.

* * *

A/N: To leguroz: Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm having a lot of fun writing this! I'm not sure I entirely understood your question but to try to answer, I do plan on developing the _friendship_ between Izuku and Honoka faster than whatever kind of relationship Katsuki and Honoka may end up having. That does not however mean that the relationship between Izuku and Honoka will necessarily remain that way. Like you said, there's potential. You see what I'm doing, right? Can't say much more on that! And in this chapter, Katsuki hasn't even seen them "happily holding hands" or anything and look what happened. I hope you stick around for more!


	7. Chapter 7

Warning: If you're squeamish you might want to be wary of a little past the halfway mark of this chapter. I'd say it's not that bad but then again, I'm not squeamish.

* * *

He'd have to face her much sooner than he had thought. This was not at all ideal. It wasn't even that Izuku had been distracted or anything like that while on patrol for his hero internship. No, patrol was the perfect distraction from the thoughts that had been distracting him earlier. He had put those thoughts behind him as soon as his hero costume went on.

He had been so focused on catching a villain who was faster than he was that he hadn't thought about the new consequences he would encounter by sacrificing one of his legs in order to catch said villain. It only dawned on him after being taken to the hospital and instead of getting treatment, they had called the school. Recovery Girl actually came to the hospital he was essentially waiting at and drove him back the infirmary at UA.

This was all very different than what he was used to. Now he wasn't being asked to call his mom to let her know what had happened and that he was all right. Recovery Girl wouldn't even set his leg or give him something to help with the pain. Instead he was propped up in one of the beds with his thumb hovering over the call button on his phone.

"Midoriya-kun, is something wrong? If you don't call her, I will," Recovery Girl held up her own phone and started to scroll through it with a pleasant smile on her face.

Izuku reflexively pressed the button and then stared at his phone while the call connected instead of putting it up to his ear.

"Hello?" he heard after a few rings. "Hello?" a little louder.

He inhaled deeply and brought the phone to the side of his face. "Hi, Honoka-san." He breathed again. "I…" he couldn't think.

How was this conversation supposed to go? What was he supposed to say? Anything he could think of to say, he didn't actually have the present conviction to mouth. Was he supposed to tell her he needed her? He couldn't do that, there was no way.

She must have taken his unwillingness to finish as a sign that this was a serious situation. "Where are you and how bad is it?" she asked succinctly and with surprising calmness.

So she wanted to come running? He wished that instead of this concern, somehow she'd just know exactly what had happened, like how women do, and be angry at him. He didn't want her to come and tend to him, he didn't want her care. Otherwise, how was he supposed to justify all of this guilt?

He decided to answer her at face value anyway. "I'm at UA… in the infirmary. It's just a broken leg," was all he could say.

"Okay, I'll be right over," and she hung up.

Izuku tossed his phone further down the bed so that he would have to stretch to reach it again. Waiting would be horrible. How long would it take for her to get from wherever she was to the school anyway? And how would she get here? Would she take the bus like she normally did? The driving age in Japan was eighteen years, so neither of them were old enough to drive. No one really drove much in the cities anyway. Was this conventional? Seriously, if he needed medical help quickly, this wasn't going to work. How far away did Honoka live? _Where,_ for that matter, did Honoka live? Shouldn't he know these things too? Honoka knew where he lived. Well… maybe that was because he lived at the dorms and no longer at his mom's house, but still. Now that he was thinking about the logistics, they'd need to figure something more convenient out. Maybe he should actually take this more seriously now that he's agreed to all this and whatever comes with it. Going through on your own convictions wasn't a cowardly thing to do.

"Midoriya-kun, if you don't stop mumbling, you'll never get a girlfriend," Recovery Girl startled him out of his thoughts.

His cheeks turned red in embarrassment but when he saw the look she was giving him, his insecurity lessened. Recovery Girl was always smiling fondly at everyone, like the whole world was peaches and roses to her. He envied that.

"Let me help you with that. The idea is for you to call Ishise-chan as soon as you feel it's safe enough for her to arrive and have her meet you wherever you are. From the little I know about other heroes with partners like you, the hero tells their partner where they'll be going for every mission or patrol they go on. They keep each other informed for the sake of each other's safety. They're never far apart."

Damn she must have good hearing.

She sighed as if reminiscing. "Perhaps that's a bit much for kids your age who don't want to have to tell anyone where they're going and when."

Shit, this was a lot. And this was the life Honoka had chosen for herself. It really was like being married or something. Or, well… being married to someone really overbearing and suspicious. He didn't feel mature enough to handle this.

He slapped his hands to his face. "Plus Ultra," he whispered to himself.

Recovery Girl might have heard it anyway, but that wasn't important. Go beyond. One step at a time. He could do this. He wasn't weak. Weakness is in the mind. Have the courage of your convictions.

While he waited, he sat there breathing. He chanted in his head trying to keep calm.

Recovery Girl got a text when Honoka was a few minutes out from the school gate and excused herself to let Honoka in. Izuku had wondered how the teachers knew when Honoka was arriving. He was also impressed that someone of Recovery Girl's age was so good with technology. Not that he'd say this to her.

As he waited alone for Recovery Girl to return with Honoka, his heart rate accelerated and his leg throbbed harder. Usually if he were injured, his friends would be beside him. Not this time. Only now in the silence did he notice the sound of a clock ticking. He wasn't even sure where in the room it was. The sun outside was starting to go down. He felt his chest ache as the warm light left the room. He felt doomed.

"Izuku-san?"

When Honoka came in, Izuku had had his forehead on his left knee, the one that wasn't broken. Izuku turned his head to look at her without lifting it.

"You look like you're in an awful amount of pain," her frown deepened as she got closer.

"Ishise-chan, now would be the perfect time to try that experiment of yours."

Recovery Girl's words stopped Honoka short of touching him. "Do you have all the supplies for that?" she asked in surprise.

Recovery Girl made her way to a closet with all kinds of equipment stored away in it.

"In a school such as this, I have almost all the basics a hospital does," she informed them both.

"Well…" Honoka looked at Izuku to see if he was up for it. Izuku made no indication of his thoughts so she asked directly. "Izuku-san, I don't want to put you through any more stress or trauma than I need to, so if you want, we can hold that off for another day."

Izuku knew he must look a lot worse than the reality of the situation due to the feeling in his heart, not in his leg. He didn't know exactly what this experiment entailed.

"I'm okay, Honoka-san. What would I have to do?"

Her look of concern didn't change. He lifted his head and gave her a smile to try and reassure her.

She sighed. "The idea is to take samples of skin and muscle tissue before and after I heal you from both of us. I naturally heal myself all the time so the only way to really see a significant change would be when I heal someone else. That is, if there is any change in me at all. Observing the change in you will help us understand what my quirk actually does to other people. I've never had the chance to truly study that before. My hesitation comes from…" she sighed again. "In order to get tissue samples, Recovery Girl will have to make an incision along the area I'm going to heal not only before I heal your leg but again after I've healed you. You can't have any drugs in your system."

Izuku rolled that around in his head. "It's not that I like the idea, but I've endured plenty of pain before. You'll have to endure the same pain, won't you?"

"That doesn't mean I want you to endure more."

Oh, if only she knew.

He knew the answer though. "Honoka-san, isn't life about enduring pain?"

She looked hard at him. She leaned in. "You're the worst," she whispered in his ear. Drawing back, she looked away. "…Fine."

Izuku's heart stopped. Had a girl, _any girl_ , ever whispered in his ear?! Nope, can't remember. In that moment, for that split second, if asked he might not have been able to recall his own name. Why was she like this?

She only noticed now that she wasn't focused on Izuku that Recovery Girl had been preparing all the equipment and setting up this whole time.

"Couldn't you have waited until we had finished discussing this between ourselves?" Honoka asked sounding annoyed.

Izuku genuinely smiled at her reaction. Why? Because she was imperfect and infuriating. Yep, that made him smile.

And so too did Recovery Girl, in fact, she even chuckled. "Young people worry so much, it's adorable."

Honoka did not seem comforted by this.

Recovery Girl finished sterilizing all the metal tools she had placed on a medical tray and went to bring out something else from the closet. She placed folded cloth on Izuku's lap and handed something identical to Honoka.

"Do you need help changing?" she asked Izuku.

Both teenagers looked from the cloth to Recovery Girl, understanding dawning on them. It was autumn. Both of them were wearing pants. Actually, Izuku's costume was a onesie. They would have to change into those medical robes that tie in the back if they were to go through with this.

After processing, Izuku stuttered to life. "I-I-I'll change by myself."

"Good, you can keep your underwear on. Come with me Ishise-chan," Recovery Girl directed.

Honoka nodded and quickly followed. Recovery Girl pulled the curtains closed around the bed Izuku was occupying.

"Here's the bathroom, you can change in here. You can keep the top half of your clothes on too, Ishise-chan," he could hear from beyond the fabric barrier.

"Right," Honoka said so quietly Izuku barely heard.

He heard a door shut. He waited a bit longer before attempting to undress himself. He could do it but man it was going to hurt. _For the love of everything that was good and holy in this world!_ He chose to stop thinking for a while and just get his job done.

Honoka was easily done changing before he was. She and Recovery Girl waited until he gave the word before parting the curtains. He could see Honoka's long sleeves still covering her arms under her robe. She had a chair with her and brought it next to his bedside to sit beside him. Recovery Girl wheeled in all the tools she'd need for their mini operation.

Honoka looked at the part of Izuku's leg she could now see and winced. It was completely black and blue and swollen in irregular knots.

"I thought you said it was just a broken leg."

"It is."

She gave him a look like she wanted to smack him.

Recovery Girl locked the cart wheels in place so that it wouldn't slide around. "Ishise-chan, I want you to prop your leg up on the rung of my cart."

Honoka hiked her robe up to expose her leg as she rested her foot on the crossbar. She presented her right leg, the same one Izuku had broken on himself.

"All right, Ishise-chan. Take some deep breaths and look away if you have to."

As Honoka took deep breaths in and out, Recovery Girl cleaned the area of skin on her thigh. Both Honoka and Izuku decided to watch as Recovery girl first used a scalpel to scrape the first few layers of skin off and place them on a microscope slide. She already had the slides labeled.

As Recovery Girl brought the scalpel back down, Honoka suddenly reached out and tightly gripped the side of Izuku's bed just before the knife made contact. Still, she kept watching.

Recovery Girl made an incision and used another metal tool to spread the skin. She sliced a thin cross-section of muscle fibers and put that on the next slide. They all watched as Honoka's wound stitched itself back up, going from an inflamed red, to a scar-like pink, then to the light brown of her normal, healthy skin.

Izuku checked her facial expression. Her face was stiff and her posture stayed ridged.

"Does it still hurt?" he asked.

She released a breath in response and her body relaxed fervently. "No."

She turned to him and grabbed his hand without permission. "Your turn."

He nodded, not really prepared.

Recovery Girl lifted up the part of his robe covering his injured leg and made the same preparations she had with Honoka.

"I'm going to heal you as soon as she's finished so that the pain lasts the least amount of time possible. I do have to warn you though, the last time I healed a broken bone, I passed out. This… also looks much worse than that time," Honoka explained.

"Right," Izuku was still unprepared.

When Recovery Girl lowered a clean scalpel, Honoka tensed and turned her head toward Izuku's chest. Recovery Girl didn't even stop.

"Ishise-chan, if you don't look, you won't be able to tell when I've finished."

Honoka kept tense but slowly turned to look.

Izuku chuckled. "I thought it was easy for you to watch this kind of stuff. You had no problem watching her do it to you."

She looked at his face while Recovery Girl made his first slide. "It's different when it's someone else," she insisted.

He smiled, forgetting for a moment that he didn't want her to care. His face contorted when the incision was made into his thigh and he squeezed Honoka's hand out of reflex.

She went back to dutifully watching and waiting for it to be over. As soon as the blade was out with what it needed, Honoka let her instinct take over and her head fell into Izuku's lap as she was out cold.

He watched her, waiting for her to wake up. He kept her hand in his even though is wasn't necessary. He didn't want to pull away.

"It seems as logic follows, the more damage she has to recover from, the longer it takes her," Recovery Girl observed. "You two have gotten close really fast."

Izuku looked up and frowned again. "In some ways, yes, but in others…" he left it unfinished.

"I think you worry too much, Midoriya-kun."

Izuku let that sink in. It wasn't like he hadn't thought about that before. He thought it was true sometimes. He just didn't know if now was one of those times.

Recovery Girl felt Izuku's leg up and down to see if Honoka had really fixed even his bones.

"I'm surprised we can't see your injury on her leg even though she apparently heals from the injury herself."

Izuku looked over at Honoka's leg and sure enough, it looked normal. He wouldn't try to move it though, and thankfully, Recovery Girl didn't try either.

Honoka sat up suddenly and Izuku jumped a little. Well, she was awake.

"All right, I'll start by taking samples from you again, Ishise-chan," Recovery Girl wasted no time.

Honoka nodded. This time she was less dramatic about it. She seemed more concerned with rubbing her thumb across the scars on Izuku's hand.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

He could feel her stripping the guilt away from him through her hand, but he kept producing it just as fast as she could take it away.

"How are you doing that? Or, actually, what are you doing?" he asked incredulously.

"Hm?" It took her a second to realized what he was referring to. "Oh. I'm balancing your brain chemistry. Not everything can be healed by just replacing cells," she explained.

He blinked at her. "Is that something you can feel as well?"

"Well, I can only tell if you're feeling positive or negative emotions. I can't tell what exactly you're feeling." She paused. "And it's only when I touch you."

Izuku observed her observing him.

"Why do you do this to yourself?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"Beat yourself up about things. It can't be productive."

No, it couldn't be. Still, it was hard not to.

"What's wrong?" she asked again, continuing to rub her thumb across his scars.

"I… probably need to tell you some things, but I'm not sure I can do it," he admitted.

She seemed to recall something. She looked him in the eyes. "Then, when you're ready."

He wanted to agree, but there were more things to worry about than just when he was ready. _Have the courage of your convictions!_ He felt like kicking himself.

"I'll tell you when I can," he humbled himself.

They held eye contact until a second incision was made on Izuku's newly recovered leg. She healed the wound and was still trying to take all of his negative feelings away. He eventually gave into her and let his emotions go.

"I'll let the both of you know the results after I've studied the slides," Recovery Girl interrupted their inner conversation.

"Thank you for your help," they both said in unison.

Recovery Girl giggled.

"I should be going. I'll see you on Thursday?" she wanted to confirm.

"Yeah, I'll walk you to the gate. My leg should be just fine now."

Honoka shook her head. "You could, but it's late. You should just go back to your dorm."

Recovery Girl agreed. "Ishise-chan is right. You should head straight back to your room. I'll walk you to the gate, Ishise-chan," she offered.

"Thank you very much, Recovery Girl-san." Honoka stood and bowed to her.

"Right, go get dressed."

Honoka left past the curtains and a door was closed.

"I'll let you get dressed, yourself." Recovery Girl pulled the curtains closed behind her again.

And like that, they said goodbye and Izuku went back to his room alone. Now he felt lonely, but it was better than what he had felt before. _Have the courage of your convictions. Have the courage of your convictions._ He would have to go through with this.

* * *

A/N: I had way too much fun writing this chapter. Izuku is just so cute sometimes! Also, I didn't realize they'd have to undress until I got to that part. _I didn't mean for things to go that far!_


	8. Chapter 8

Today Izuku was on a mission. A personal mission, more specifically. He needed to sort things out before telling his friends about what he was up to. By then, maybe he will have figured out what to tell them in the first place. So, step one: avoid his friends as much as possible. Check. This time, he switched things up by purposefully timing his arrival to class to just before the bell rang. This gave him an instant nonverbal excuse to sit and not be disturbed. Which worked until lunch rolled around.

Of course, he had a plan for this as well. He started walking with everyone else toward the cafeteria but soon slipped off somewhere into the crowd before anyone was the wiser. It probably only worked because his friends had yet to become suspicious. This led him to step two: find Hatsume Mei and ask her to build some sort of communication device for him.

After peeking into class 1-H, he was directed to Power Loader's workshop by one of Hatsume's knowing classmates. He should have figured. As he had no idea exactly what kind of communication device would work for what he needed, he tried explaining to Hatsume what he wanted only for her to suddenly look uninterested. Apparently she thought it was boring if it weren't something flashy and didn't do something awe-inspiring. Luckily for Izuku, Power Loader berated her for being rude so she took the job anyway, making suggestions for the sake of practicality and brainstorming ways for it to be flashier—which Izuku shot down immediately—in the same breath.

With a successful dash back to class, check.

Step three: continue to avoid his friends, especially now that they've noticed. Again, easy until class let out and he had to walk through the classroom to get to the door. He had his internship to get to and his friends knew that. Doesn't mean that'd stop them from stopping him.

Preparing for this moment, he had slowly and quietly packed his stuff up as class neared its end. As soon as the bell had rung, he was on his feet and speed-walking to the door. Unfortunately, someone was ready for him. Tsuyu's tongue caught his arm just before he could make it out the door. He knew that the only hope he had of escape was if he could shock her.

"Midoriya-chan."

He smiled over his shoulder at her and his other friends who were watching, all looking to say something to him. "I really have to report to my internship now, especially after what happened yesterday after breaking my leg."

Perfect! Tsuyu's tongue-grip loosen and he pulled away and rushed down the hallway while everyone caught up mentally.

"Wait, you broke your leg?!" he heard Uraraka call from behind him.

He didn't stop and he didn't look back. His body started shaking slightly as his heart pounded like a drum. He could feel the vibrations undulating through his body. That was the most underhanded thing he had done in forever. He was aware that there were people out there who wouldn't consider his actions underhanded at all, but to him it was terrifying that he could do that so easily. Maybe he was learning more about himself.

Because he had responsibilities after school, he needed to ask a couple people if he could talk to them when he got back. As long as nothing went wrong, he should get back to the school by a set time. With their agreement, he headed off campus without running into anyone he knew who would stop him.

What was he on now? Step five: make sure nothing goes wrong. He really did have to report in with urgency after what had happened yesterday. He got lectured for not finding a way to catch the villain he had been after without injuring himself. Apparently he was too willing to hurt himself. It's not that he didn't agree, but hey, he was working on that one.

He mostly spent this time on autopilot so that he could reserve his higher brain functions for coming up with the words he'd need later. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night. He just couldn't shut his brain off once he'd decided he really would take this seriously. He had thought about what Recovery Girl had said to him and he couldn't ignore the fact that with him and Honoka living far apart, he might just die waiting for her the next time something actually serious happened.

Not only that, but he didn't know how well protected Honoka was wherever it was that she was living. He was pretty sure he had come up with a plan that would solve both of those dilemmas, but he was nervous that his pitch would be shot down before he could properly explain his thought process.

His time on patrol came and went and since nothing extraordinary happened, he checked that off his mental list as well.

Step six: talk to principal Nezu.

Izuku knocked on the door to Nezu's office and heard a pleasant, "Come in."

Izuku walked in, closing the door behind him and sat opposite his genius rodent principal.

"Sorry to make you stay so late after school. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me," Izuku bowed his head respectfully even though he was already sitting.

"Not at all," principal Nezu waved his humbling act away. "I stay late everyday. Would you like some tea?"

"Um, sure. Thank you," he accepted the offered cup and sipped at it.

"So then," Nezu sat back down at his desk. "What brings you here so late in the evening?"

Izuku mentally took a breath. He knew the principal was more open minded than most, Izuku had, after all, made it into this school. "I've been thinking about how my partnership with Ishise-san could run into potential problems. I've been trying to work out solutions in my head to make this safer for the both of us. I haven't had any examples to look at so I think this took me longer than it should have but, I would like to ask permission for Ishise-san to live in the UA dorms."

Nezu didn't respond. He only continued to look at Izuku and sip his own tea.

Izuku saw this as an opportunity to explain his case. "I broke my leg yesterday and had to wait for more than half an hour for Ishise-san to get here so that she could heal me. Obviously her living here won't solve the problem of getting injured away from the school, but if we're always starting at the same place it will be a lot easier for us to meet up. I already asked someone from the support department to make us some concealed communication devices so that I can tell her where I am if I need help. I plan on keeping Ishise-san informed about where I am as much as possible and…" he was running out of things to say. "We'll… figure things out from there," him finished lamely.

Not that what he had said was lame, he just felt lame about it with Nezu staring with no change in expression. He had to hand it to him, even with his small stature and cute appearance, the principal still managed to be intimidating at times.

Nezu set his tea cup down and regarded Izuku carefully. "I think your intentions are in the right place."

Izuku blushed having not thought about _that_ at all.

"Still, that would require a great deal. Ishise-san would have to transfer to UA and become an official student to be allowed stay in the dorms. Although Ishise-san's grades would allow her to enter as a general education student, she is currently in a special program of her own with Hijikata Katashi-sensei. You may remember him, he was the one to accompany Ishise-san the first time she came here. He is a practicing physician and he lets her shadow him at work besides being in charge of her general studies. Ishise-san is no longer allowed to attend school the same way you are, so the only way she could be a student here is if Hijikata-sensei were hired to work at UA. Of course, whenever we hire a new teacher it ends up on the news. In fact, UA admitting a transfer student during the middle of the school year will probably prove news worthy in the eyes of the public as well. I'm sure we're all on the same page about the danger that kind of attention could bring to you both. Also, I cannot hire a teacher by myself. The school has a board of directors that have to vote on any potential candidates. So you see, it's much more complicated than just your intentions."

Izuku had been deflating more and more as he listened to the principal. "Oh," he said in defeat.

"However…"

Izuku perked up a little.

"I've been waiting for either of you to come and ask me this. I've been preparing since you agreed to Ishise-san's proposal."

Now Nezu had to know exactly how he was making this sound. Izuku wondered if he was trying to make fun of him.

"So you mean…?" Izuku dared to inquire.

"Yes, if Ishise-san and her parents agree, Hijikata-sensei has already agreed to come to UA and teach not only a special class for Ishise-san but to also teach extra classes in first-aid and medicine for any students who are interested. With the latter being the pitch to the school's board of directors, he's been approved but not officially hired. With that as the story, we would try our best to transfer Ishise-san quietly," Nezu explained.

"So, I just have to make sure Ishise-san has permission from her parents then?" Izuku felt relieved.

Nezu smiled at him. "Just be sure to let me know what Ishise-san says as soon as you have an answer. It will still take a while to put everything in place."

Izuku smiled back. "Sure, thank you very much!" He stood to give a proper bow this time.

"You're very welcome, Midoriya-san."

Izuku stood straight again. "I have someone else I still need to talk to tonight, so if you don't mind," he pointed toward the door.

Principal Nezu motioned for him to leave. "Of course, don't stay out past curfew."

Izuku nodded. "I won't," he said before turning and making his way out of the school building.

That had gone much smoother than he thought it would have. Hopefully the last part of his plan went just as well.

He made his way to the forested area of the school grounds intending to meet his mentor. He felt the least prepared for this conversation. All Might probably thought he wanted advice on something. He had actually asked him to the forest so that it would seem more like he wanted advice for his quirk. Why he did that, he couldn't really say. It was just more familiar to him and he associated the forest and All Might with feelings of success.

All Might was waiting for him, sitting against a tree in his lanky form. He stood as Izuku approached but Izuku kinda wished he hadn't. If they were sitting down at least he might feel a bit more comfortable.

"Midoriya-shounen, have you had a breakthrough with One for All?" All Might asked him immediately.

Well, since they were already talking about his quirk, perhaps he could get straight to the point.

"No, this is about something different," he started. He took a breath and gave All Might the feel of his convictions with his posture. "I want to tell Ishise-san the truth about my quirk."

All Might stared at him. "No, you can't do that." It was simple. It was straight. And as far as All Might was concerned, it was fact.

Izuku kept trying. "But you know what she's doing for me. She told me everything about her quirk and her quirk has to remain a secret too. She's risking her safety by trusting me and I have to do the same. Besides, she can't really help me fully if she doesn't know the truth," Izuku reasoned.

"Midoriya-shounen, I've told you this before, _no one_ can know about the truth. Ishise doesn't need to know about your quirk for hers to work on you. She doesn't need to know," All Might shot back, firm to his earlier words.

"But she's sharing the risks from my life. She doesn't know why I keep injuring myself using my own quirk so she doesn't even know what she's risking herself for! She'll keep the secret, I know it," he insisted.

"It doesn't matter if she has the intention to keep the secret or not. There are plenty of people out there with quirks that can acquire information from people without their consent and every person who knows adds to the risk that someone will find out. You already let Bakugo-shounen find out without even telling him."

Izuku felt a bit hurt. "Well didn't you ever tell anyone? The risk of someone finding out is there no matter what!"

Something flickered in All Might's eyes and he paused before replying. "You still can't tell her. End of discussion," All Might said with finality.

Izuku tensed up his body like he wanted to retaliate, but then the strength washed out of him and he looked down. Well that didn't go nearly as well as he had dared to hope. He gave one last defeated look to All Might and walked away. He couldn't find any parting words anyway.

All Might watched him go and felt a tinge of hurt that he had to be so stern. It might not seem fair, and it might feel lonely, but All Might was sure it was safe. That's what he wished he could give Izuku, but that wasn't the life of a hero.

Izuku walked back to the dorms knowing what he would do. If he had any luck left it was used up when the lobby of his dorm building was empty. It seemed it was late enough that everyone had stopped waiting up for him. He was grateful for that. It made things easier.

Once in his room, he pulled out his phone and sent a long text to Honoka explaining what he had gotten permission for her to do as long as her parents were okay with it. He was hoping that if he talked to her and she got excited he might feel better. Good thing she wouldn't be able to feel his mood through the screen.

He laid down across his bed and waited. He stared at the ceiling and tapped his fingers for something to do. He had started falling asleep, still with his clothes on when he felt the vibration in his hand. He looked at her reply.

[Oh.] Followed by, [Are you sure that's a good idea?]

Yes he was sure it was a good idea. He proceeded to type out all of the reasons he had given principal Nezu in his office earlier.

After another long while, [Yeah, I guess you're right.]

Izuku was trying really hard not to get irritated. [So, what did your parents say?]

[Hold on, let me ask.] Another long moment. [They agreed.]

Somehow Izuku wasn't finding her excited. He wondered if she even wanted this but he didn't want to ask her. If he asked and she said no, he'd have to let it be and try to come up with another solution. Instead, he ignored the intuitive part of himself.

[Great! I'll help you move in! Or pack… or both!]

[Move in is just fine. You wouldn't want to see my room as it is now anyway.]

Finally! She was actually talking to him now.

[Oh? Why is that?]

He continued to talk to her until the wee hours of the morning, but it didn't really make him feel any better. He knew that all that would result of this was that he'd be extremely tired all day tomorrow. Still, he felt compelled to stimulate more conversation between them if anything so that there were more words between the awkward beginning to their conversation and their next one in person tomorrow.

They talked about stupid and pointless things, all the while he thought about what he'd say to her come next afternoon. He was going to do it. Tomorrow he'd break his promise to All Might.

* * *

A/N: Well, you know what this means... More frequent interactions... and everything else that comes with them!


	9. Chapter 9

"Look, it's coverage of the press conference," Honoka pointed and the two of them stopped.

They were at one of those big shopping centers with large screens that either played idol performances or the news strategically located at any area people tended to convene. This particular screen was displaying footage of the press conference UA had set up to announce the official hiring of Doctor Hijikata Katashi as, surprisingly, not a resident doctor but as a professor. Both Izuku and Honoka stood between the throng of people still walking, watching the screen with blank stares, not really listening to the speakers projecting sound that matched the lip movements they weren't really seeing.

This was the first time they had seen each other in their street clothes. In fact, it was the first time they had seen each other outside of the UA grounds, if you didn't count the times Izuku had watched her leave through the school gate. At their first meeting, Honoka had been wearing something resembling a school uniform, although, knowing what Izuku did now about her schooling prior to… well tomorrow actually, it didn't seem to make sense for her to have a uniform. Since then she had always shown up in plain T-shirts and capris until the weather started getting colder and she added a jacket and pants. Izuku had always been in a uniform or his workout clothes in front of her.

They were actually there with the intention of getting Honoka some proper workout attire. Something more breathable and less sweat absorbent than cotton and real running shoes to replace the slip-on flats she had destroyed by this point. They had gone together on his offer simply because Honoka knew nothing about sports shoes.

That being said, they hadn't talked, _really talked_ , for about the last nine days since Izuku had laid down the truth for her. She hadn't made a comment about it and he hadn't asked for one. In a way, talking about nothing substantial with her was a nice break from trying to skirt around his issues with his friends all the time. He had tried his best to give them satisfactory answers without revealing the things he couldn't. That part of his life was making him feel more and more like he was living a lie. On the other hand, Honoka's unresponsiveness and avoidance might be slowly killing him. He just… wanted _something_. Good or bad, that mattered a lot less to him than getting rid of this extra layer of anxiousness that had been spread across his thoughts like a greasy film.

Honoka was holding a couple of bags with shoes and some sportswear. They had accomplished their goal for the day. Why then had they kept walking around aimlessly without saying anything? Why hadn't they gone home yet? Honoka wasn't finished packing from what he remembered her saying earlier in their trip. He would help her move in tomorrow. Shouldn't they both be preparing for that? If he were thinking straight maybe he'd know they were still standing there for a reason.

By this point in the footage, the floor was open for the reporters to ask questions directly to Hijikata-sensei who seemed to only deflect or answer conservatively. Without looking away from the screen, Honoka shifted one bag to her other hand so she could grab Izuku's. Izuku looked down at their hands and marveled. She wasn't using her quirk on him. He could tell because he didn't immediately get that high feeling he got when she usually touched him. She was leaving his emotions alone. She was holding his hand just to hold it.

She didn't say anything at first and he felt inexplicably like crying. Perhaps their combined sorrow at the way they'd each been carrying on the past week amplified in that moment, coming to a head; finally and truly, ready to talk.

"I'm sorry," she nearly whispered.

After a beat she turned her head to look at him. "I'm sorry," she said again, regret swimming in her eyes.

Izuku didn't said anything in response. He knew she wasn't done yet.

She looked back at the screen. "I didn't know how to respond before." Pause. "I think… I think the goals and ambitions I had set for myself were all… really selfish. Not that I had intended for them to be. I just thought about how I wanted to do something that would make myself feel fulfilled. I wanted to be able to help people because I felt that otherwise, I was afraid of feeling useless and alone and… purposeless. The very last thing I wanted was to be purposeless. Like, what's the point then?" she gave a sad laugh. "I think those thoughts were okay for my initial motivation. I needed that, so it was fine. But… it didn't stop after that. I was still thinking that my only real responsibility was to myself and to you." Another pause. "But then… when you told me the truth… I was suddenly confronted with the thought that I didn't just have responsibility to you and me, but to the world. That thought would make my ambitions more than just for me. I… I got scared."

She took a deep, shaky breath. "I thought it was too much," she admitted and closed her eyes.

Izuku refused to say anything again and eventually, Honoka opened her eyes only to look down. He was forcing her hand, so to speak.

"I thought about it a lot. Actually, that's pretty much all I've been thinking about. I thought about being angry for a while because I eventually realized that you had let me get into this without telling me all I needed to know, but even when I tried to feel angry at you, I couldn't. I know you couldn't tell me something like that until you trusted me completely. To be honest, I don't see how you could have trusted me even at this point with something so… critical. So, I guess I understand. There's also this part of me that thinks you should never have told me and you should have kept it a secret until the day you died."

Again, a pause and a look at green eyes. "Now I feel that I could never betray all that you've entrusted to me no matter how absolutely terrified I am. And I want you to understand, I may never not be absolutely, screaming terrified of this. I may never get over the fact that you blow my ambitions out of the water, and that I can never go back to my old life of feeling safe! But, I'm grateful that what you said turned my world entirely upside down and out of whack, because I also realized something else. I don't want to be ignorantly selfish my entire life. I don't want to pretend that I want to help people for their sakes. I want to _sincerely_ help people for their sakes. I want my helping you to help other people. I've never wanted this before, but I want it now: I want to be a hero too. If that means that I live that dream through you, I'll be your guardian. I'll be your hero."

She took their clasped hands and put them over her heart. "This is my new promise to you."

As Izuku took turns staring at her face and their hands, a flicker of a thought passed through his mind. He wasn't ready for that thought and that moment was far more important to him than his mind's impulses, so he let it flicker on by. He squeezed her hand firmly as he stared into her eyes that were seeking acceptance from his. The move was to let her know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was forgiving her.

"Honoka," he spoke.

Her eyes lit up with shock and her lips parted. There was silence while he waited for her to understand him.

"Izuku," she replied.

His mouth turned up sweetly in the faintest of smiles, barely there but meaningfully received. They held gaze for a moment longer before turning away at the same time. After a while of contemplating the floor, Izuku felt Honoka tugging on his hand so he followed her lead as they started walking again, aimlessly, hands still squeezing tightly.

Part of Izuku's anxieties were wiped away and replaced by something new he didn't want to digest yet, but there was still one more thing he wanted to clear up with the girl at his side, the place, he supposed, she'd almost always be.

"Honoka…" he gave her name room to breathe, "about Kacchan…" He didn't bother finishing, knowing she would know what he was trying to bring up.

Still, she took a moment to reply. "It's not that important," she said dismissively.

He doubted that, and his silence gave Honoka the impression she had to explain further to convince him.

"I never expected to see him again anyway. I came to UA to find purpose, not love."

He found that a bit curious. Some people would say that love is purpose, but he felt _glad_ that she didn't think so. He still refused to say anything. After all this time she spent not talking, it really was only fair.

She glanced at him briefly and got the gist of what he must have been thinking. She sighed.

"Okay, so… Katsuki's aunt and uncle lived next door to me while I was growing up," she started.

Wow. This was it. Izuku was surprised that she was finally volunteering this information, all on her own.

"They had a kid, Katsuki's cousin, who was much older than us and as far as I know, once Katsuki started getting older, his cousin would rather hang out with his friends from school than entertain a kid half his age. His aunt brought him over to play with me and my friends. I think we were about seven or eight. After that, anytime his family came to visit he'd come over to play with me, with or without my friends. Since all we ever did was play, and infrequently at that, it was easy to get to know what each other was like without really knowing much of anything. I didn't start liking boys until middle school but by then, I'd already been pulled out of school and we had moved. I wasn't really around boys anymore, so I guess I chose from my memory instead."

She gave him an ironic smile and he blinked at her.

"So, like I said, it's not that important. It was just… something to hold onto from before I got… lonely."

A minute passed in which Izuku thought about how to respond. "That's why you wanted to know about him," he said slowly.

Honoka's cheeks turned pink and she looked sideways. "Yeah. I was… too excited," she admitted.

They fell into silence again and for the first time in a while, Izuku actually paid attention to their surroundings. He found a little cafe and took charge of steering them in that direction.

"Where are we going?" Honoka asked as soon as she noticed he had a destination in mind.

"To get something to eat," was the short answer.

"But it's only three o'clock."

"I know, so you're hungry, right?"

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean you have to go with me. You can head back to the dorms if you want."

He shook his head. "No, I'll just get something to drink."

She looked at him trying to decipher something but it seems she didn't figure it out. "Okay."

They sat at a table for hours, neither one saying a word. This time though, the companionable silence itself was healing the rift between them. The sky grew darker as the sun sank lower and movement increased beyond the window pane.

"It's the first snow of the season," Izuku observed.

Honoka followed his gaze. "Oh, no. I hope it doesn't snow too much, the trees haven't lost all their leaves," she frowned.

And as Honoka took to observing the falling crystals, Izuku took to observing her.

Their relationship had changed and both of them knew it. Neither of them felt particularly better, but that was okay for now. It was the best they could manage.

* * *

Once Izuku returned to the dorms that night, he went about knocking on doors and gathering up some of his friends so that they could talk. Uraraka and Iida wore looks of concern as he led the small group to his room for some privacy. They had been concerned for a while now. He'd been really down lately and didn't look any better now.

A couple of his friends sat on his bed, a couple on his floor and himself on his desk chair straddling the back. Besides Uraraka and Iida, he had also brought along Tsuyu and Todoroki. These were his closest friends at the school and enough was enough.

Swiveling his chair back and forth a little he started to talk. "Sorry I haven't been as honest as I would like to be lately."

His friends all stared back at him but said nothing. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I wanted to give you guys a heads up before tomorrow since the school hasn't said anything and I also wanted to explain a little of what's been going on." He looked to Todoroki. "Uh, and sorry Todoroki-kun. I know you haven't heard anything about this directly from me yet. You never asked and I was actually kind of relieved that I didn't feel like I had to lie to you."

Todoroki blinked at him, the only one in the room that still didn't have somewhat of an idea of where this conversation was going.

"Well, I'm glad you haven't lied to me, but I don't think you need to apologize for not telling me something. As long as it was personal and not something I needed to know," he acknowledged.

Izuku smiled a little. "Yeah, it is personal, so I can't tell you everything, but," he looked at the rest of them, "I know you guys have been worried about me, so I think it's only right I tell you as much as I can."

Some nods went around the room. Izuku breathed for a while before starting again.

"You all know that I've been training with a girl named Ishise Honoka. I told you that she's a doctor-in-training doing a case study on me. Well that's half true at best. I actually made a business deal with her for the future of my career as a professional hero. After we both graduate she'll be my personal doctor. I also said that Honoka's trying to help me find a solution to my problem with my quirk hurting me when I use it. That at least is true. I can't give you guys all the details of our contract, but that's why I've been meeting with her regularly."

"But Midoriya-chan, what would Ishise-san be getting out of this? You're not paying her, are you?" Tsuyu asked skeptically.

Izuku shook his head fiercely. "No! It's nothing like that! It's just that… It's-It's one of her ambitions. She said it was like her… 'calling'," he supplied.

He tried to think of a way to explain the truth without being exposing.

"She thinks that if I save people, in a way, she's saving people by saving me."

When no one else responded, Todoroki nodded. "And you said something about tomorrow?"

"Right. Honoka will start attending UA on Monday so she's moving into the dorms, our dorms, tomorrow."

Now his friends all looked ready to say something at once, but he hushed them all by quickly continuing.

"She's still studying to be a doctor and she won't be in our class. She's just coming here because we realized that for this to work we have to be close to each other as often as possible just in case something happens. Our contract specifies that unless it's absolutely necessary for my safety and wellbeing, she's the only one who can treat me," he explained.

Uraraka and Iida shared a look, both frowning.

"Deku-kun, does the reason you've been feeling… _down_ have anything to do with Ishise-san?" Uraraka asked cautiously.

"Oh. Well… I wasn't being totally honest with her either. I told her everything last week and she didn't take it very well. It's okay now though. We're… okay."

Uraraka and Iida shared a look again at his response.

"Midoriya-kun," Iida and Todoroki said together.

They looked at each other.

"My apologies, Todoroki-kun. Please, you first," Iida obliged.

Todoroki nodded at Iida but Uraraka frowned even further at him.

"Midoriya-kun, I'm glad that you've told us this, that you trust us with this. I don't understand the logistics of this, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that's only because you can't tell us everything. I think you should know though, I won't let your trust be wasted. I think," he looked at the others, "if anything should happen, you can come to any of us."

Izuku felt water surfacing near the brim of his eyes so he blinked at few times and looked at the floor. When he felt he could control himself again, he looked back up at Todoroki.

"Thanks," was the only word he found.

Seeing this, Uraraka's expression lessened as she became about half satisfied.

"Iida," Todoroki gestured for his turn.

"That was… more than what I could have said," he smiled with gratitude.

Tsuyu peered over at Uraraka to see how she was reacting and decided it was time for them to all go back to their rooms.

"Okay!" she stood up. "You'll have to get up early to help with the move in, won't you, Midoriya-chan? Let's all go to sleep. If you need anymore help tomorrow come get us, okay?" She gestured for the rest to also stand.

Sensing what she was trying to do, they all stood and moved to the door.

"Okay, thanks guys. Really," Izuku gave each of them their own meaningful looks.

"Right, of course!" Uraraka smiled brightly despite herself.

"Goodnight!" Izuku called as they left. They each said goodnight in return and Izuku shut the door.

* * *

A/N: Hi guys! Sorry it's been a while! But, look! Izuku has good friends!


	10. Chapter 10

First day in her new uniform and she looked downright uncomfortable. It wasn't the clothes themselves that were uncomfortable, but what they signified that made Honoka feel out of place. She felt even more out of place when the student to teacher ratio was one to one in class 1-I; the Medicine department. Funny how things work out. The only differences between now and before she had transferred to UA were the classroom, the nineteen extra desks and again, her uniform. Everything was just oddly off.

The layout of a respectable classroom having been considered, Hijikata-sensei had had Honoka move one of the student desks to adjoin his own. It made things seem a little less weird, as having one student sit so far away only made the empty openness that much more apparent, it's just…

Honoka was used to shadowing Hijikata-sensei at the hospital until his shift was over and then sitting down in the break room for him to look over the written work she was assigned so that her time with Hijikata-sensei could legally count as "school." In other words, she would do all her actual "school work" at home, not with her _master_ reading over her shoulder.

As such, she was literally counting down the seconds until the bell would ring while simultaneously trying to work out math problems. If Hijikata-sensei noticed that her mistakes were a pattern of incrementally decreasing numbers, he never mentioned it.

The bell _finally_ chimed so that Honoka could gather her stuff, bow to her master-turned-professor and thank him for the day's lessons before promptly bolting from the room. Since today was Monday, nearly every student had some sort of activity to get to immediately after class, be it a club, group training or, like in Izuku's case, an internship.

This meant that Honoka could do what she wanted, seeing as she and Izuku had yet to set up a system for if there's an emergency outside of the school grounds. Apparently he wouldn't be on patrol today anyway, so it was less of a concern as far as she knew.

Honoka stopped by the class 1-A dorms (that were now technically the classes 1-A and 1-I dorms) to drop off her stuff in her room and change out of her uniform. She felt more like herself once out of the sort-of-tailored clothes.

She grabbed a bag with water and snacks to suit her needs before leaving for the school gate. As she approached, she slowed down upon seeing the people she was meeting just beyond the barrier kicking rocks. They were slouching, the three of them, in their own school uniforms, looking toward the ground, not bothering to watch for her. She couldn't tell if they were talking or not.

A part of her was dreading the rest of the walk. A part of her was dreading the incoming conversations. But she needed to see them, needed those conversations, even if it didn't make as much sense now that she lived so far from them. Still, they had come to her. It be worth it, she kept telling herself.

She took a deep breath and walked. Once her footsteps became audible to them, the boy facing the entrance looked up.

"Well shit, you really do go to the big-shot school for rich kids now, don't you?" he grinned like this was the best news he had heard since the last time he had found something so amusing.

The other two high schoolers, all in matching uniforms, turned to her.

"Where's your uniform?" the girl of the group asked.

"Changed out of it," Honoka supplied without any indication that she would ever be willing to offer up a deeper explanation.

The girl tsked at her and shifted her weight to her other hip. "Well that's shitty. I wanted to see you in some preppy uniform."

"Yeah, the skirt would have been nice," the other boy laughed.

Honoka crossed the invisible barrier that kept people who didn't belong out while her three "friends" watched intently. Although Honoka knew their eyes were following her most usually, at the moment, she had no clue as to why.

Assuming they would do what they usually did, she started walking off prepared to lead the way.

"I looked up where the nearest arcades and parks are. This way there's—"

"Hold up," one of the boys called.

Honoka stopped and looked back at them.

"Since we're here, sneak us in," he pointed at the entrance gate.

Honoka looked dumbly between his finger and the barrier.

"You have an ID badge, right? We can chuck it back and forth 'til each of us is through," he suggested reasonably.

Honoka's stance tensed. "But—" she started, letting her sentence fall when the girl of the group closed the distance between them.

The girl started patting Honoka down and reaching into her pockets as she spoke. "Don't think about it too much, it'll be fun. Besides, you know we've done much worse. We'll just explore, we'll all make sure no one notices us. The school grounds are so huge no one will—"

When she went to reach for Honoka's bag, Honoka finally took back some of her personal space by grabbing both of the girl's wrists.

The girl looked a bit surprised, then started anew. "Come on," she kicked Honoka's shin none too lightly.

Honoka let go and took a small step back.

"You know you want to be like us anyway," the girl smiled at her.

By this point in time the two boys had also encroached upon her space. From a distance, this exchange could have seemed playful. None of them looked stiff from afar and three out of the four appeared to have natural smiles on their faces. Only when one got a little closer could it be noticed that the atmosphere surrounding them was strange; not like bullies who had cornered a victim, but not friendly either.

"No, that's going too far," Honoka stated in a tone that was oddly dead.

One of the guys spat at the ground while passing her. "Then what did we piss off all the way here for?" he asked rhetorically as he led the group in the direction Honoka had originally tried to lead them, the other two following him and dropping the pursuit of Honoka's school ID.

"Come on," he motioned with his head, hands in his pockets for her to follow them.

Honoka waited as if hesitating until there was a decent gap between her and them before stepping forward, only to be jerked back by a sudden hand around her upper arm, causing her to suck in a sharp breath between her teeth as if she had been stung.

She recognized the hand immediately. Why? Because even through her shirt _and_ her jacket, she could tell that the palm was burnt.

Her companions looked back at the sound she'd made, two stared and the other raised an eyebrow. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to yank herself free.

"Let go of me!"

He did not, in fact, let go. "Those uniforms don't belong to any school around here, meaning they'd have to ditch to be here now. You hang out with deadbeat posers?" Katsuki asked her as if he were a judge.

"Hey!" the girl from another school yelled.

One of the guys made to approach. "Didn't Ishise tell you to let go of her?"

Katsuki looked up at them and glared while grinning. This made the three freeze, maybe because they recognized him as UA's resident psycho hero-in-training, or maybe because he just looked down right frightening.

"I'm sure you know that with the current political climate, UA's concern for its students has caused the security to go up. So get the fuck away from the campus!" he said persuasively. He needn't say anymore.

"No! But..." Honoka opened her eyes only to see the three scram. She reached out helplessly in the direction they'd departed.

"You haven't answered my question," Katsuki pointed out, still sounding judgmental.

"Well, you haven't let go of me!" was her answer to that. She kept trying to break free and refused to look back at him. She needed to keep as much distance between them as possible while still being held in place.

"They sounded like they only cared about you so that they could use you." This statement brought into question whether his judgmental tone was really directed at her or instead at her "friends." Actually, it was probably both.

She leaned all her weight into trying to pull away. "I don't care! I'm using them too!" she shouted the truth.

She didn't really notice, but Katsuki didn't say anything for a while.

"For what?" he asked.

Honoka ignored the question. She wasn't thinking about this conversation at all. All she could truly concentrate on was trying to separate herself from him without touching one of her palms to his skin.

Apparently, Katsuki had waited long enough. He yanked her toward him, forcing her body around so that they came face to face. Upon seeing his eyes glaring, she threw a punch at his face. He easily deflected it and then caught her wrist.

Now completely stuck, Honoka looked anywhere but at his face, bouncing her eyes to avoid his.

" _For what?"_ he asked again.

Still not giving up her struggling, she continued to avoid saying anything until he squeezed her arms tighter making her instincts scream unbearably loud in her head.

"It's none of your fucking business!" she finally cracked.

This time, Katsuki was momentarily stunned by hearing her cuss in front of him.

Gritting her teeth, Honoka attempted to use this as an opportunity and went for a kick. Katsuki blocked it using her own arm and if he hadn't been holding her, she would have fallen over.

"You'll be on battlefields, won't you? You should know how to fight by now," he remarked.

By this point in time, she was pretty angry and pretty stressed that he was holding her there. She could no longer be held accountable for the things she said.

"You don't have to worry about that, Izuku's teaching every week!" Yes, she knew the topic of Izuku was liable to enrage Katsuki. So what?

"And how the fuck is he teaching you? Giving you diagrams to bring home and label?!"

"No! For your information, since you're oh so curious, he shows me all the stances and the correct forms! I had no fighting experience at all before he started teaching me! We practice together and I'm getting better!" she shouted in his face.

He took on an incredulous expression. "And does any of this practice include sparring?"

"Well, no! He doesn't want to hurt me."

She swore his eye twitched at that. "That's it, you're coming with me." He started to pull her back through the entrance.

Honoka dug her heels in. "I am not going anywhere!" she flat-out refused.

He graced her with a look over his shoulder. "There's no way you can prepare for actual battle without sparring. You need experience facing opponents to get you to think in a fight. All you do is forget your stance and flail around. If you were halfway to competent, you'd have gotten out of my hold."

Ouch. Yeah, that was helping her heart.

"I don't need your help!" She tried again to kick him but his shin was instantly nearly perpendicular to hers in a perfect block. He turned all the way to face her again and gave her a leveling look.

She waited, anticipating that he'd do something. He transferred one of her wrists so that both could be held in the same hand. She was confused until he bent sideways and pulled her over his shoulders before righting himself, effectively carrying her with both her arms and her legs trapped so that she couldn't struggle. Doesn't mean she didn't try. She wriggled around, squirming as best as she could.

"Put me the fuck down, fuck-face!"

"Is fuck the only curse you know?" he asked conversationally as he began walking through campus.

"It's practically the only curse I've heard you say!" she threw back, not caring to prove herself.

At least right now, even if she gave into her instincts, she'd never be able to get her palm on some of his skin. On the other hand, she was mortifyingly embarrassed. From an outsider's perspective, she was being kidnapped and she hadn't even put up a good fight.

"Damn. I should really give a shit and hope to high hell you don't think I'm fucking retarded," he answered back condescendingly.

"More like fucking ineloquent," she huffed indignantly.

She suddenly felt his shoulders shaking and was surprised to realize that this was the result of quiet laughter. _He was laughing?!_ She didn't know how to take this. She was close enough to him to feel the shift in his mood. His negative emotions weren't gone, but somehow he was able to experience sudden mirth at the same time. That must be exhausting.

She didn't find anything funny nor even mildly amusing about her current situation, so she decided on the silent treatment in an attempt at revenge. Seemingly content with this, Katsuki offered up no new conversation.

He carried her past the dorms and several training sections before choosing one with a city scape, though he didn't stop at that. He brought her into one of the buildings and up several flights of stairs before letting her down in an open room with a simple concrete floor. He stood between her and the door but the windows had no glass in them. Given her quirk, she'd probably survive just jumping out the window and falling four stories. Not that she was considering this.

"You're pissed off at me, yeah?" he took a fighting stance as he already knew the answer. "Well then, hit me."

She knew that he was goading her, but she really was pissed. She took a fighting stance as well, one that Izuku had taught her, and lounged at him. Instead of blocking her, he dodged with his whole body and turned to push her. She fell, only catching herself with her hands before she could face-plant.

"I told you, you forget your stance as soon as you start fighting. Bend your knees even further. When your center of gravity is high, you're easy to push over."

Honoka stood back up and refaced him. She begrudgingly bent her knees further and took a moment to center herself so that she might remember to _keep_ her knees bent. She lounged at him again, this time going for a kick to his abdomen. He grabbed her leg and pushed her back. This time, her feet landed solidly on the ground and her hands caught her from behind before her butt could hit the concrete.

She pushed herself up and glared. "I think I'm even more angry knowing that this is already working."

"Helping, you mean," he corrected her.

She made to go at him again but he dodged without touching her. "This time, when you attack or dodge stay on the balls of your feet. Your heavy-footedness keeps you from being as quick as you're able."

And so the sparring went on… for hours, until the sun had long since set. Honoka had asked for several breaks during their session and had eaten something from her bag each time, but otherwise, she had gotten back up every time she had be pushed, thrown, hit and kicked without any kind of complaint. She was drenched with sweat and had dirt sticking to her but no bruises, scrapes or scratches. She showed no signs of injury, no one would be able to tell of the hundreds of hits she had taken in the last several hours.

Katsuki had definitely taken note of this.

He dropped out of his stance when she started blinking more times than was reasonable. "I had planned on going until you gave up," he stated. He looked at her carefully. "Go sleep. The body needs rest," he told her, collecting his bag and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Don't faint on your way back," he called as he left down the stairs.

She stood in her stance panting for a long while. Eventually, she let herself collapse.

"Fine," she breathed out.

Something occurred to her suddenly. Never before had she felt so uninclined to heal someone she actually liked. She felt absolutely no need to chase after him and heal all the damage to his body. For hours now, she had felt free from something that was beyond choice.

They had made no plans to meet again and had said nothing about anything relating to Izuku. Yet, Honoka knew that somehow Katsuki would end up teaching her more. No words required.


	11. Chapter 11

The lunch bell rang and Izuku got up from his seat. His plan for today was to find Honoka and check up on her, see how her first day at UA went yesterday. He hadn't seen her at all. If she ate lunch in the cafeteria, she must have sat far away from him and his friends. He wanted to make sure she felt welcome to join them, though he suspected she ate in her classroom and avoided other students altogether. Not that surprising when he thought about it. She hadn't been to a proper school since elementary.

Needless to say, with his mind occupied, he was startled a bit when he nearly ran into one of the school's female uniforms. Hagakure had somehow stood between him and the door without his immediate notice, presumably to talk to him.

"Midoriya-kun! Is it okay if we eat lunch together today? I—" she stopped for a second as Katsuki passed them.

Izuku wouldn't have noticed anything had she not been mid-sentence since he couldn't see her expression nor where her eyes were looking.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," she picked up almost immediately after stopping.

Okay, so that was a bit weird, but Hagakure was a hard girl to pin down. You know, with the whole not being about to see her thing. Izuku didn't really know whether to consider this suspicious behavior or not. From the corner of his eye he saw Tsuyu watching them carefully. This could either mean that she was suspicious of what Hagakure was doing, or she was merely curious. If Tsuyu was watching she would for sure tell him as soon as she felt something was amiss. So, reassured, Izuku decided to see what this was about.

"Sure, Hagakure-san. Do we need to go somewhere else?" he asked politely.

She linked one of her arms in his and started to steer him out of the classroom. "Oh, nowhere special, let's just go to the cafeteria and buy lunch before anything else."

Izuku was about to try and question her but she immediately starting talking about something entirely irrelevant too quickly for him to get a word in.

* * *

Once Toru was off with Midoriya, Mina parted ways with Kyoka having already given her her instructions. The plan in action, Mina traversed through the moving halls until she found room 1-I.

Before going in, she looked through the window of the door and saw Honoka with her face down on a desk. Maybe what she had heard earlier was true.

She opened the door and walk right up to Honoka. Honoka didn't move to acknowledge her presence. Bending down to get a closer look, she took note that Honoka's eyes were scrunched up and in one of her hands she was holding her cell phone.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" Mina asked.

"I've already tried to get her to eat twice today," said a voice from behind her.

Mina was startled as she whirled around to see a middle aged man eating a bento at the large desk at the front of the classroom.

Without moving anything but her empty hand to gesture with, Honoka introduced them. "Ashido Mina, Hijikata Katashi-sensei." She dropped her hand again, both arms draped dramatically over the desk.

"I'm the new professor hired to head the Medicine department," Hijikata clarified for her.

Mina thought of several questions at once, but of course, the most important one was, "Wait, is it the same 'kata' in both your surname and your given name?"

He almost choked on a bite he had yet to swallow trying not to laugh. He pulled himself together and put his bento down. "No, my name is actually written like this," he demonstrated by writing it on the board.

Mina blinked at it. "Aw, that's less fun. Can I call you Kata-kata-sensei?"

Honoka's head shot up from the desk and she gave Mina a look that was unreadable but intense. Mina had no clue whether she was bothered or maybe embarrassed.

Hijikata-sensei laughed outright this time. "Will you be attending my class?" he asked in response.

"But, uh… I'm in the hero class," Mina pointed out, tilting her head to the side.

"I believe there was an announcement made to each of the other classes that for the current semester I will be offering a class that's more like a club after school for anyone who wants to learn about medicine and general first aid. Next semester it will be an actual elective, but for now, since it's mid-semester, it won't be all that structured."

This was actually interesting. Maybe Mina should have paid attention whenever it was that this had been announced. "What are you actually planning on teaching?"

"Well, for now it depends on the students who attend and what they want to learn."

"Wouldn't you talk about how to treat acid burns?" Mina asked, her interest piqued.

"If you attend," he replied.

"When is it?"

"Every school day immediately after school and Saturdays at three. Attend when you can, not everyday. I wanted it to be as accessible to the students as possible since everyone has busy schedules. How the class goes will be determined by the makeup of the students that attend. Different each day."

That sounded really cool. And just the type of class for Mina since she loved to talk. She could pay attention in a class structured like that.

"Wow."

"So, you'll attend?" Hijikata-sensei asked.

Mina nodded. "Yeah," she smiled.

"Then you may call me what you wish."

At this, Honoka also gave _Kata-kata-_ sensei an unreadable look. Mina just beamed, liking the doctor and his attitude.

"Thanks, Kata-kata-sensei!"

Honoka threw her arms up in the air looking forlorn toward the ceiling and slouched back in her seat crossing her arms. Mina couldn't help but smile watching this. Why? Because it was fun.

"Um, sensei? Could I talk to Honoka-chan?" she asked in the politest sounding voice she could make.

Kata-kata-sensei looked over at Honoka knowingly for some reason Mina didn't understand. "Sure, Honoka-kun could use some friends," he put in some earbuds and started some music, presumably to drown them out.

" _Kun?_ " Mina looked back at Honoka with a smirk on her face and mirth in her eyes.

Honoka's face had turned bright red and she was avoiding eye contact. "He's been making fun of me ever since the one time I cussed at a patient at the hospital," she explained.

Mina bursted out laughing. "You did _what?!_ "

"There… was an… old man who said I was a… nice young man for helping out at the hospital," Honoka fought through her embarrassment to say.

Mina laughed even harder, taking the seat next to Honoka so that she wouldn't collapse to the floor. She stabilized herself on the desk smiled at Honoka's pinkness.

"You don't look anything like a boy."

"I had shorter hair then." She thought some more. "And puberty hadn't hit me in certain areas yet."

Mina snorted a giggle at that.

"And he might have been half blind."

Mina hit Honoka on the arm.

"Ow!" Honoka yelled, but that got her to look at Mina smiling at her.

Mina just kept smiling and not breaking their eye contact, so eventually Honoka melted into a soft smile herself.

"You're not eating," Mina pointed out.

Honoka looked away again.

"Does this have anything to do with what the second year girls were saying?" Mina poked her.

"What do you mean? What were they saying?" Honoka turned back to Mina.

"That Bakugo-kun was seen carrying a girl around against her will yesterday. They didn't know who the girl was but, come on, a younger student they hadn't seen before? Bakugo-kun never talks to any of the other classes so it had to be you."

Honoka sighed and sunk back down until her face hit her desk again. "Yeah, that was me," she told the desk.

Luckily, Mina was always prepared to interpret a muffled voice. "So, was it really against your will? And how did you get yourself in a situation like that in the first place?"

"It was against my will but it doesn't really matter. He was actually helping me in the end. Aaaaand, I really don't want to talk about the rest," Honoka said in a defeated voice.

"So then, what? Is this not a good thing?" Mina frowned a bit.

Honoka rolled her head to the side to look at her. "A good thing?"

"Because of your crush on him?"

Honoka looked back at the desk. "I don't know."

"What has you so unset?" Mina asked with a little more concern.

"It was mortifyingly embarrassing! I couldn't help myself get out of the situation!"

"So you need to know how to fight?" Mina sat up straighter.

Honoka held a hand up to appease her. "Don't worry, I've got that covered now. It's just…" Honoka searched for the right words. "Can I tell you something without you asking more questions?"

Mina nodded fiercely, "Probably. Maybe."

Honoka gave her a flat look.

" _Yes,"_ she emphasized.

Honoka made several false starts before speaking. "I was so mad at Katsuki the whole time I was with him. I know he was doing it on purpose, but it surprised me. He made me so angry, to the point where all I wanted to do was punch him. It made me forget about all the other things that were bothering me and I felt relaxed afterwards," Honoka explained to the air vaguely.

Mina processed for a moment. "He's teaching you how to fight!" she shouted in epiphany.

Honoka jumped up and grabbed Mina's arms that had gone up as if she had achieved some great victory.

"Don't say anything about it," Honoka said very seriously.

"Honoka-chan, do you want this to stay a secret?"

Honoka looked like she was torn between answers.

"Because if so, I already have you covered for today."

"Huh?"

"You see," Mina leaned in conspiratorially. "Toru-chan is distracting Midoriya-kun as we speak. Probably talking his ear off if I had to guess. And Kyoka-chan is making sure that any of our friends that would tell Midoriya-kun don't hear anything from the second years," Mina winked at her.

"Wait, but why would you do that? Didn't you say the second years didn't know who I was?"

Mina gave Honoka a deadpan look. "Have you seen the way Midoriya-kun and Bakugo-kun fight?"

"No."

"Well, even if Midoriya-kun doesn't figure out it was you right away, he'll confront Bakugo-kun about it as if everything Bakugo-kun does is somehow his business," she said with a roll of her eyes.

Honoka searched Mina's eyes for a while as if trying to find truth in them. She smacked her lips. "And Katsuki wouldn't even think about lying about what happened."

"Exactly," Mina agreed.

Honoka thought some more.

"It wouldn't be that hard, really. The second years rarely ever talk directly to us first years, so it's mostly just a matter of keeping him and his friends from overhearing things," Mina offered, trying to help her make a decision.

Honoka sighed, sitting down and letting Mina's arms go. "In that case, just let things play out naturally. In the mean time, I'll think about what I want to do."

There was a pause in the conversation in which Mina took the time to wonder if enough conversation had taken place in between now and when she had promised not to ask more questions to make Honoka forget about it. She decided to chance it.

"So, if Bakugo-kun was teaching you to fight, are there plans for a next time? Is it a date?"

Honoka let out an exasperated sigh. "No plans, and I don't want a date."

"Don't you?" Mina remarked.

"Shut up."

Mina looked at the clock. "Lunch is almost over and I haven't eaten yet. Eat and give me half to make it up to me," Mina insisted.

Honoka pointed to the front of the classroom where all her stuff was piled on and around a student desk conjoined with the professor's desk. Mina found the bento and looked over at Kata-kata-sensei who still had earbuds in and was humming a tune leaning back in his chair having long since finished eating.

Sensing Mina's eyes on him, he looked over between the two girls and then gave Mina a wink.

Mina grinned and put her hand on her hip. "Kata-kata-sensei, that's practically sexual harassment."

He took out one of his earbuds. "You wish."

Mina pointed at him and beamed at Honoka. "He's awesome!"

"That's only because you're not his apprentice."

"And I've been trying to teach Honoka-kun bedside manner for years now."

Mina looked back at Kata-kata-sensei. "You poor soul."


End file.
